Nesting boxes for wild birds are a wonderful way to help out your local wildlife, but your responsibility doesn’t end at the placement of nesting box.

Did you know that almost two dozen species of North American wild birds will consider a human-made nesting box? It’s true, but how on earth can you be sure that the bird you want will use your nesting box?

There is only one way and even that way will not guarantee success. After all, birds are wild creatures (as are the animals that harass them) and have minds of their own. Continue Reading »

I’m onto my second reading of Pete Dunne on Bird Watching. Which, by the way, is a great book for both the backyard bird watcher and for those who want to know more about birdwatching in general.

The chapter I’m on now is discussing nesting box success (dimensions, placement and predator prevention), but the fact that escaped me on the first read, and that shocked me the most is this:

“Everyone engaging their lives with the lives of birds should understand that 90 percent of the birds born in any given year fail to see the next. Nest failure is the first major cut on the way to maintaining the population at a healthy level that does not outstrip resources.”

You see 90% of the birds born this year won’t Continue Reading »

It has been said that when God made the bluebird he wished to display attributes of both the sky and the earth, so he gave the bluebird the color of the one on his back and just a hint of the other on his breast.

The bluebird has been known over the years as the peace-harbinger. In him the celestial and terrestrial converge. But the bluebird brings more balance than that he is all that is soft, all that is color and light, and he brings with him the promise of spring in one appearance and the retreating of warm weather on the other.

If the bluebird is migratory in your region you’re likely to first spot this gorgeous splash of color on a bright March or April morning. Listening closely you’ll hear him nearby almost as a whisper, so tender and so prophetic, a hope tinged with a regret.

John Barrows said that the bluebird seemed to Continue Reading »