Ready for Residents

As is evident from earlier posts, I am a total nut when it comes to birds.. the outdoor kind. Not a fan of birds in cages.  I grew up watching and listening to sparrows, doves, cardinals, jays, mockingbirds, hummingbirds and more.  And I have carried that love.. instilled by my mother.. into adulthood and passed it on to at least one of my kids. Over the years we have watched birds build nests.. seen babies fly for the first time.. buried a few that the neighborhood cats or our dogs have gotten.. saved a hummer we were certain was dead.. and spent many hours watching with a Field Guide in our hand to id new to us birds.  So it is not surprise that our yard is geared towards birds. My sweet husband landscaped our back yard years ago and made certain we had flowering plants and plants that have berries to attract birds.. as well as bird baths, feeders and houses. And he even put my glider out in the midst of it so I could sit and take it all in. :-)  He is a good man!

We have had bluebird houses on the fence line for many years. Every February we clean them out and wait for the scouts to come exploring. We have watched the mama and papa bluebirds build the nest and even seen them going in and out to feed babies. They don't like to be watched... they are very covert.. I call them secret agent birds. Only once have I seen the babies fly.  I was outside doing laundry and heard a sound, turned around and there they were. It was one of the most precious things I have ever seen.

Several years ago some other kind of bird pecked at one of the houses and made the entrance hole larger.. which meant the bluebirds stopped using it.  Both houses were looking ratty and in need of repair or replacement. Then our neighbor decided it was time to replace the fence, so we had to remove the houses before it came down.  We decided this was a good opportunity for new ones.  Soon we learned that the carpenter where my husband works makes bluebird houses and we ordered up 2 new ones. He brought them in this week and hubs got right to hanging them up.  Here they are on the fence row..

and here is a close up...

I was sooo excited to see them there. But even more excited the next day when I saw Chickadees going in and out of one the next day!  Chickadees are one of my most favorite birds. Did some research and found that they will nest in Bluebird houses. Had no idea!!!

I have not seen them back there, but the following day I saw bluebirds checking out the new digs.

So hopefully we will see someone moving in soon. I have a small bowl full of thread scraps from sewing that I plan to toss out once I see nest building activity.  Would be fun to see bits of it in the nests around the yard.

As for the old houses, they are on a shelf in the carport.  This winter the wrens and sparrows used them to get out of the cold and rain.  We are expecting nests to be built in them this spring too. We have wrens in the carport somewhere every spring. They are too cute but sooo loud!

Hopefully I will be able to snap some photos of our winged friends... maybe even a shot of a bluebird!  That would be a coup!

Yard Update

Thought I would share some photos to show where things are with the yard and all the flowers and such...

My husband plants a lot of the same plants each year.. plants we love like petunias and verbena..

 but he always enjoys adding something new to the mix. This years newbie is Agapanthus.. Lily of the Nile.  These plants grow sooo tall!  We have to whose blooms are just about to open that are easily 3 feet or more. We have 2 others (pictured below) that are not as tall and have nice open blooms.   I love the soft lavender / lilac color.

We have Asiatic Jasmine in our bed and I love it!  It has spread and filled in some bare spots and is so rich and lush with color. I really do love it!

And I shared earlier about our confederate jasmine. It continues to grow and bloom profusely!  Love it too!

When we planted these beds years ago, my husband's new discovery was Anthony Waterer Spirea.  We planted two and have enjoyed watching them grow and bloom with these bright pinky-purple flowers.

A few years later we planted a third... only to discover its blooms are white and a lighter purple.  We love them both.

As always I have herbs growing and yes, I use them in cooking!  In fact last weekend our son used some of the mint to make Blueberry-Mint-Lemonade.  I, for some reason, failed to snap a photo of the mint or the oregano... but here are the other 3 we have this year..

Isn't this thyme lovely.. so green!

Rosemary... one of my favorites!

Basil... ranks up there with Rosemary!  I use a bunch of both of these,

While out in the yard, I noticed the blue birds going in and out of the house.  Couldn't catch the Mr. but got a nice shot of the Mrs.

The day before these photos were taken we had some rain and wind.  Our River Birches always loose some twigs and such. A nice size limb fell that day. Mia had to investigate, but deemed it safe and went on to better things.  

Be Joy-filled!