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