Bird Houses Revisited...

It was finally time for some spring cleaning. We have two great bird related stores here in Boise and I visited one of them yesterday to pick up my free birthday bird seed. They told me last year that it was important to clean out our bird houses each year because leaving the nesting materials could cause mites or parasites for the next years baby birds. To be honest we never imagined that the bird houses would actually be used let alone used year after year by our local feathered friends. I just assumed that you could leave the nesting materials to make it easy for the next occupants but that is not a good idea. You learn something new every day. Anthony and the boys built these bird houses in June 29th of 2004. Now five years later we have finally cleaned them out and repainted them. We also purchased some nesting materials to hang near the bird houses. I have been saving Raisin's and Jay's dog hair each time I brush them to add to the mix. Apparently it makes good nesting material. Who knew. The shots above are of the boys that I originally took in 2004 and them today holding the same houses. We are working on the one additional house we needed for the wall and are going to add a potted vine plant and maybe some decorative elements too. We have also since added a bird bath and another feeder in the yard tree. It is coming along.