Hello Pilgrim,
Enjoy listening to Eva Cassidys' lovely and haunting rendition of Over the Rainbow while you browse this post.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuSNxZb47Ns&noredirect=1
I always clean out my blue bird houses in the winter as I never seem to get it done in the fall. It is one of those gardening jobs that you can do in the snow and cold! Blue birds come back to Western New York in early March so as it is almost the middle of February I need to get out there and get the boxes cleaned out.
I have 6 nesting boxes. The boxes on posts up near the woods usually have wrens in them. Then I have swallows in one box and blue birds in the rest. I had a much longer trail of boxes a few years ago. I had put up the blue bird nesting boxes all along a split rail fence. The fence rotted and we decided to just take it down. So down came the blue bird boxes also. I have about 10 of them sitting in a pile in the barn. I just need to get 10 posts and, oh yeah, someone to dig 10 post holes.
The blue birds love to eat berries. When they come back to New York in early March it is still winter and there are not many insects around and so they find berries to eat. We have had a flock of 12 blue birds dining from our Winterberry bush [Ilex verticillata]. They congregate on a tree branch high over head and then take turns coming down to daintily pick a single berry. Off they go with their prize, to were blue birds fly, and very soon the prize is gobbled up. Not long ago I saw a flock of blue birds alight on a very grizzled, old, poison ivy vine that snakes it way up the maple across the road. There they feasted with seemingly great enjoyment on the small white berries.
I must say, to see one blue bird is a treat, but to see a coterie of blue munching on your berry bush is well....oh, I do not even know how to even pick out a word! Just imagine.I have only ever seen them in a group in the winter. Must be as courting and nesting begins they are more territorial.
Today remember The One who makes little blue birds fly and rainbows and blue skies. Remember He is The One who loves you and gave his life for you. Not one sparrow falls without His knowing. How much more does He care for you? Grace and Peace.
