For the Birds

For quite a few years now my husband Mike and I have enjoyed bringing songbirds into our yard. Mike is especially keen on swallows, so we put nesting houses up for the swallows each year. They need to be high and in an open area to attract the swallows. So this year, Mike planned to put up new utility-size posts in our pasture, string wire between the posts and hang the birdhouses from the wire.

 

Mike, the engineer can do anything with ropes, pulleys, and a come-along. After cutting down a dead cedar tree on our property, we hauled the two posts made from the trunk to the pasture using the aforementioned items and our John Deere riding mower and trailer. Once in the pasture, Mike erected the pole into the hole with the system illustrated in the photo above. That guy can work wonders.

 

Here you can see the results of the pole raising and wire stringing--the perfect address for swallow houses. And we were just in the nick of time because on March 12, we had our first sighting of swallows circling our property. All winter we've been feeding chickadees and juncos. This past week our feeders have attracted spring birds such as the house finch in the picture below.

 

This morning as I awoke to snow again, I'm encouraged with the news of spring delivered by our finches, swallows and red-winged blackbirds.