The Birdhouse Rebuild

In my backyard, there’s always been a post with a birdhouse on it.

Years ago, I noticed that this post had begun to split, which meant that it had no doubt also begun to rot.

Like all in-ground posts, it had been cemented into the ground, though, so that made removal a bit of a … task.

For the past few years, I ignored that task and simply left a very small birdhouse up—this spring, that tiny house hosted a nest of wrens.

(I know this because the nest was made of twigs—a hallmark of the wren population.)

But the fact is, the post was still rotting, from the ground up, so I decided a couple of weeks ago to deal with it once and for all— before it fell over in some inopportune moment.

First, I enlisted the help of a friend to get the rotten one out of the ground.

It was, as anticipated, a task (and a half).

I then proceeded to put a new post into the ground, and put a vinyl “post jacket” over it. Unlike whoever sank that first ill-fated post, I opted to use pressure-treated lumber, so it won’t rot out again, and the vinyl covering will help protect it even further (in addition to making it look nicer).

Then I began to research what kind of birdhouse I wanted to put on it.

And, here, dear reader, is where I fell down the proverbial rabbit hole that is the occupational hazard of all former literature professors who love a good DIY project.

I decided that BEFORE I put a house up on the existing pole, I wanted to create NEW birdhouse sites on NEW poles at other points around my yard—in particular, I wanted to put up bluebird nest boxes and an owl nest box.

Several years ago, a wee saw-whet owl roosted on a tree in the parking lot outside my condo.

I came out one morning and saw a lot of bird poop on my car. And I mean, a lot.

It looked like a bird with dysentery had hovered over the hood of my car for several hours.

I looked up (cautiously, of course) and saw this little fellow looking back at me. (I mean, who could resist such a face?)

It spent the winter hanging out there—this photo was taken in late January of 2013.

Needless to say, people quickly learned not to park their cars in the spot immediately below him.

One day, when the weather got a bit warmer, it disappeared.

The decline and fall of the existing birdhouse in my backyard reminded me of how nice it was to see this little guy hanging out, so this weekend, I created two slot nest-boxes for bluebirds (I hope).

I’m more used to working with fiber and fabric, so they’re not perfect, but they’re my first attempts at becoming a landlord, and I’m reasonably proud of them.

I opted to start with a slot-box style birdhouse, because I have quite a few sparrows hanging around, and some say this type of house will deter them.

Others (vehemently) beg to differ—I’ve discovered that, like knitters, bird fanciers tend to have strong opinions about their “hobby”—but I needed a starting point for my budding bird sanctuary, so this is the one I chose.

I’ll post a 30-second home tour video below; in the upcoming weeks, my plan is to create an owl box as well, because I can’t help but think that if I could host a saw-whet or screech owl on my property, my happiness would be complete.

And meanwhile, there’s still that empty post in my backyard that needs a new house…