Life Doesn’t Wait
We’ve been so busy with school, we almost missed a critical seasonal activity: cleaning the bird boxes before the flocks returned this spring. This year there seems to be a record number of bluebirds and swallows battling over the boxes, so Mark headed out to scrub them out before nest building begins.
Opening each carefully because wasps have started building nests inside.
Brushing out a box before spraying with a diluted bleach solution.
Keeping the old nests from last year, they need to be heated to remove parasites and put in plastic bags before we can use them in lab.
Although most of the boxes were set up along a “bluebird corridor,” several species sequentially use the boxes throughout the spring and summer.
The birds were paying close attention and went inside the cleaned boxes within minutes of us moving back.