Spring is the season when birds are frantically gathering
nesting material. My yard is not ultra tidy so they find lots of natural
material available (leaves, moss, pine needles, twigs, etc.) But over the years
I’ve inadvertently provided more nesting material by having cedar branches and
hanging baskets available to tear apart.
The cedar branch had been made into a suet log but that
didn't keep the birds from stripping all the bark fibers off to put in a nest.
I enjoyed watching the brown-headed nuthatch strip it actually.
This year a Carolina chickadee is working it over again. The
hanging basket was one of those wire ones with a coconut fiber liner. Over the
years it kept getting holes in it and the dirt would leak out. It puzzled me
until I finally caught the culprit in action (Carolina chickadee in that case).
Last year when I
emptied out a bunch of hanging baskets, I saved the coconut fiber liners so I
could set the fiber out as nesting material this year. I've already filled
this suet feeder twice with fiber so I know the birds are using it. I was lucky
enough to glance out the window in time to see a female eastern bluebird
pulling lots of coconut fiber to take away for nest building. Unfortunately, I
didn't have a camera nearby.
