This Farm is for the Birds (except chickens...)

(except chickens...) please refer back to post titled "Not Much Farming" for a complete explanation as to why this is the case. I am not ready to revisit it yet...

However depressing our chicken story is, our songbird population is healthy and growing. It is a daily blessing. Outside our kitchen window is the coolest birdfeder I have ever seen. The couple that built the house put it in. It is a tray that spans the distance of the two windows, with a seut feeder on each end. Every morning while sipping coffee we get to watch the birds literally right infront of our noses! There is a constant stream of feathers at the window and we all enjoy it. We added two feeders in close proximity to this one and it is constantly in use. It is 8:30pm and I can still hear the steady chirping of our birds.

Not the best picture of it, but you can see the driftwood collection. We put it everywhere in the gardens and the birds just love perching on it. We actually had one at the old house that a bird found a little hole and began living in it.

Adam's grandfather recently gifted us a beautiful birdhouse. Yesterday, while Ben napped I loaded the birdhouse, cordless drill, and Simon in the wagon and headed out towards the muscadines to set the house up. Simon was thrilled to be a big helper and Ben was surprised to see it up when he awoke. The excitement of these two little boys over a birdhouse got me thinking about the environment that we are trying to create here at our farm. So, today after the boys hunted their Easter eggs (which I also took as a sign that it was time to think about birds) I took the camera out to photograph all of our little homes and feeders.

So beyond the patch of forest behind us which is home to so many birds, cardinals, tufted titmice, pine warblers, to name a few, we have an assortment of homes scattered across the farm.

This house is home to a lovely bluebird. She has three eggs in there, I spied. I tried very hard to get a picture of them but it was just too impossible to do without disturbing them. I wish I could share with you the amazing color of those teeny tiny eggs.

This nest in inside one of our large Camelias. Simon has adopted this Camelia as one of his play homes. Today, he pulled me in and we discovered two nests amidst the branches.

We got this from a client of Adam's. We haven't spied any birdies coming in and out yet.

We inherited this one in the muscadine vines. We moved it though and had to do several repairs. Ben picked the colored nails. It is a nice touch. This one reminds me of the little cabin I lived in when I met Adam, equally as ramshackle and repaired in much the same way, a nail here, maybe one there, yup I think that will hold it!

Ben painted this itty bitty house last summer in Gatlinburg Tennessee.

Some of these gourds came with us from our garden in Newnan, the vine overtook the backyard, very stinky flowers but very cool fruit. One actually began growing between the boards of the arbor and was flat on two sides, we called it the pancake gourd. It didn't make it here though, I think it cracked and rotted instead of drying out. Too bad. The white ones we discovered in the corner of the shed here shortly after we moved in. One afternoon we tied them all up into the Sycamore tree. That big white one has constant traffic in and out. There must be babies.
This one I just think is pretty. It looks so natural and I think if I were a bird it would be the best choice.
Today, the new birdhouse witnessed the boys hunting Easter eggs. Simon spied an egg to high to reach on his own and his Pop-pop gave a little needed assistance. Can you imagine the tales a birdhouse would tell if it could talk? Just think, all the different birds from year to year, babies hatching, and then the goings on of all the humans raising more humans.
Thank you Great Pop-Pop, for giving us a beautiful home for our birds and for inspiring us to contemplate our relationshiop with our feathered friends.