In approximately a month, the bluebirds will be returning from their southern migration. They come back earlier than most birds that return to our area and they expect things to be ready when they get here.
Each year, I build a few more bird houses, and each year, we have more bluebirds. At this time of year, it is important to clean out the houses from previous years. At this stage in my life, the hardest part is remembering where I put them. Some days, I think I could hide my own Easter eggs.
A neighbor of mine draws a map and numbers his houses. This is a good plan, especially if you scatter bird houses around several hundred acres like I do. Hunting in the fall, I will occasionally run across a bird house I had forgotten about several years ago. In that much time, the average house will fall into disrepair and unsavory neighbors, such as squirrels, will move in.
Building a bluebird house is very easy and requires only a minimal amount of materials. It can be a fun family experience. My grandsons and I built several houses last year and had a good time doing it. I cut and drilled the boards and they used the power screwdriver to put them together. A power driver not only makes it easier for a child to accomplish the task, there is the satisfaction of using power tools. It is a guy thing, and guys of all ages enjoy more power.
The ultimate satisfaction was when we put the houses around the farm and they were claimed in a few short days. Male bluebirds return from the south before the females. They find a suitable home for their mate and stand guard until she arrives.
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It is fun to ride around in the early spring and see the birds within a few feet of the house just installed, driving away anything that would take the chosen home. Bluebirds, as well as being colorfully attractive additions to the area, eat large numbers of mosquitoes and other flying insects. They are much more effective than insect repellant.
Wood duck and kestrel houses are only slightly more difficult to make. Wood ducks are colorful and like a box nest near or on a pond. Kestrels, also known as sparrow hawks, like a house along a tree line next to a pasture or near roadways. They eat large numbers of mice and other small rodents.
As long as we are between seasons, after deer and before turkey, we might as well spend a few hours in the shop building houses that will help to increase the population of our feathered friends. It is little effort, considering the enjoyment we receive in return. I like to watch a brightly-colored wood duck being followed by a bunch of little fuzz balls. I like to see a sparrow hawk dive at the ground at what seems a hundred miles per hour to catch a mouse in its talons. Most of all, I like to drive along the edge of the timber with my grandsons when the bluebirds are flying back and forth like dozens of bright blue butterflies.
Along with the time spent passing rudimentary carpentry skill along to the next generation, the boys will grow up knowing they were part of the reason we have the bluebirds.
Walter Scott is an outdoors enthusiast and freelance writer from Bloomfield, Iowa.
