THE BLUEBIRD
Cheryl and I
tried to attract bluebirds when we lived in the city. We had several pairs of
cardinals that visited our feeders, we had house finches by the score, we even
had goldfinches, nuthatches, chickadees, titmouses, sparrows and Carolina wrens frequently.
But the elusive bluebirds, were never seen anywhere near our backyard. Blue
birds are small and they are strikingly beautiful. The males are a brilliant
blue with reddish brown breast and white bellies and the females are a softer
blue with softer red breast and white bellies. They are a special treat to see.
I read a
couple of birding books and discovered that they are actually very shy. They
really don’t like to be around humans and even in the animal world, they prefer
to have private nesting away from other birds.
They are
more frequently seen in the outer suburbs, or out in the country where they can
have more privacy and escape from contact with people. It seemed that we were
destined to never see any blue birds.
About four
years ago, we moved out into the county to a home on over an acre of land and
predominantly clear of trees. On one side we have a nice row of 25-year-old
willow oaks and in the back we have a substantial green break of leyland cypress, long needle pines and four well-spaced
willow oaks. Altogether, it is a formidable sound and site barrier that
protects the back of the house. The front and other side have no trees except
what our next door neighbor and we have recently planted.
Since we
love and care for wildlife, we quickly put up feeders of sunflower with mixed
seeds and thistle to attract various species of birds. The primary feeder was
soon overwhelmed by large black birds who lined the trees behind the house and
then continuously attacked the feeder, running off smaller birds who dared to
try for the seeds. The feeder was quickly emptied as the black birds scattered
all the smaller seed they didn’t want and devoured the sunflower seed like
ravenous sharks tearing up a helpless victim. We decided we didn’t love all
wild birds.
At
Christmas, I saw a bird feeder at a garden shop that looked like a solution for
our problem. Around the circumference of the feeder, wire with small holes had
been installed that would only allow small birds to reach the seed inside the
feeder. My feeder was a very nice feeder, so I decided to adapt my existing
feeder to ward off the evil back birds and allow only the smaller birds to feed
from it.
A quick trip
to Home Depot and I had all the materials I needed for my project. When springtime
arrived, I managed to create a reasonable facsimile of the feeder I had seen.
The wire had small openings that would allow only the smaller birds to perch
and stick their heads in for feeding. It worked, and after a short time the
frustrated black birds quit coming to the feeder and smaller birds began
flocking in.
We had all
the same birds we saw in the city and then one day Cheryl said, “ I saw a
bluebird on the feeder”. Now bluebirds prefer insects of all kinds so I’m not
sure they were eating from the feeder, but they were at the feeder. We were
excited and kept our cameras close at hand to capture the next magical moment
when we would be blessed with a blue bird sighting. And surely enough, we saw
and photographed blue birds around our very own feeder in our own back yard! We
were excited and began to think about how to keep them nearby.
After some
more reading, I went to the feed and seed store, and bought a bluebird house.
Everything I read said that you must put the house in a remote area, away from
trees and out in the open if possible. I selected a spot on the open side of
the yard, about midway, and stationed near the edge of the property. The
birdhouse sits on a one-inch pipe and faces toward our home; as a matter of
fact, it can be seen directly out the window over the kitchen sink. The
neighbors have a flowerbed with low shrubs just behind the birdhouse.
For the rest
of the year, no bluebirds took up residence in the house I had placed. Over the
winter, I purchased an additional bluebird house and erected it in a clearing
of the trees in the back yard. Instead of the one-inch pipe, this one was
mounted on a four-inch cedar post, so I thought that they might find it more
substantial and worthy of building a nest there. It was placed where it can be
seen outside of the breakfast room in our home.
You can
imagine our excitement the following spring when Cheryl announced that she had
seen a bluebird on the old birdhouse on the side of the yard. Surely enough,
both male and female appeared and we watched them bring in all their nesting
materials. The female stayed for the summer and we are sure she hatched their
new family. I was very careful not to disturb the house while mowing and we
never tried to open it while they were nesting. I did get close enough to hear
the little ones cheeping, but we never saw them. And then one day they were
gone.
Not forever,
for we saw them occasionally atop the birdhouse or in the trees. They are
always such a special treat to see; it is like God has trusted you to view one
of his most elusive creatures, because He knows that you care for them, as he
wants to care for us. It is a privilege.
For a long
time we didn’t see them and we started to wonder if they would come back. You
don’t think about them every day and eventually when you don’t see them, you
forget about them.
In late
summer, we pulled into the driveway one afternoon and parked the car outside
the garage on the parking pad. As we walked toward the garage door, I heard a
strange scratching sound that I had not heard before. Cheryl had already walked
into the garage, so I called to her to stop and listen to the noise I heard.
She came back and we both decided that it was something we had never heard
before. I followed the sound and it led me to the back side corner of our home.
On this
corner, there is a downspout from the gutters that connects to an under ground
black plastic pipe to carry the run off away from the house. As I approached
the downspout, it was apparent that the noise was coming from where the spout
joined the underground pipe at ground level.
“It’s a
field mouse or a rat”, I said, “It sounds just like a mouse trapped in the pipe
and he can’t get out”.
“What are
you going to do?”, she asked.
“Leave it”,
I responded, “I don’t want any critters under the house”.
“You can’t
do that” she said, “You’ve got to get it out, whatever it is”
I knew her
tone and I knew that I had no other alternative, even though I truly didn’t
want to free a rat, I went into the garage and got some tools to pry the pipe
away from the down spout. After working a couple of minutes, I made an amazing
discovery. It was not a rat, but a bird!
In fact, in
another minute, I pried the pipe away from the spout and the most beautiful
blue bird I have ever seen was looking straight at me. He looked at me as if to
say, “it took you long enough to get here, now get me out of here!” Another
minute and the opening was big enough for him to flap his wings and he sprung
from his trap and flew straight to the birdhouse on the side of the yard. It
was our blue bird!
I was
astonished and amazed that it was the blue bird in the pipe. What if we had not
driven in when we did? What if I had not
heard the faint scratching sound? What if Cheryl had not insisted that I free
“whatever it was” from that pipe? How had he fallen into the downspout? How
long had he been there?
None of
those questions really matter. The important thing is that we did what we did!
In doing so, we preserved something that was precious to us. We love bluebirds,
and we feel so privileged that we were there to show them how much we care.
I think we
had a family in each birdhouse this year and I swear that one flew by me the
other day and chortled a little song that sounded like,
“Thank you
friend”.
“You’re
Welcome”, I whistled back.
Written by David Warbritton exclusively for the Warbritton family
+
BLUEBIRDS PRAYER
"Lord thank you for the birds that tweet
Thank you for the bugs I eat,
Thank you for this house to live
And thank you for these hands that give
