Tufted Titmouse

I should preface this by saying that I don’t particularly like birds. I suppose birds are like people in that some are nice, some are less than nice, some are gregarious and some just like to be left alone. They may love their families but the whole pushing the young out of the nest to teach it to fly seems to point the other way. I had a friend that did more or less the same thing when his kids over stayed their welcome. Granted he didn’t live in a tree so tossing the kids out at ground level wasn’t as traumatic. It was still cold though.

Now, having established that I don’t like birds, maybe trust would be a better term, for some inexplicable reason I like to have bird houses around the place. I don’t like/trust them, but no one should have to spend cold Alberta nights sitting balanced on a tree branch. I have seven last year and have added another three into the mix this year. Making a bird house isn’t as easy as I thought it would be. It turns out that those little feathered dinosaurs are picky when it comes to their homes.

The inner dimensions can’t be too large or too small. I understand the too small; we had one bathroom with two adults and three teenagers for far too long. The too large doesn’t make sense unless the worry is that some other socialist bird family will move into the same space believing that sharing is their right. There must also be adequate ventilation or it will get too hot inside. I made a bird house with a metal roof and I think the birds used it to punish avian wrong doers, sort of like being interred in a German POW camp.

 

The door size is also important and determines which species of bird you will attract. If you want to attract a barn owl you need a whole 6 inches around. Who the hell would want a barn owl on their fence? It would be like cleaning up after a small dog. Last year the houses I made had entrance holes 1 ½ inches in diameter, for those of you that use metric that would be “look it up yourself!”. The inch and a half might be a little large because the magpies would perch on a nearby branch and eat the young chicks right out of the birdhouse. Turns out I was making bird feeders, not bird houses.

 

This year I went a quarter inch smaller which should attract magpies with longer beaks. The lady magpies love the guys with longer beaks. I just looked it up and these new houses should attract downy woodpeckers, house wrens, white breasted nuthatches and the tufted titmouse. I’m hoping for the tufted titmouse of course. Actually, I am not even sure that any of those birds live in Alberta and to tell the truth I don’t care. I just like the look of them.

Another Busy Day

So, I have nothing to say tonight.

I guess I will just tell you about my day for want of anything interesting. I did sleep in this morning which I don’t generally do. Part of the reason was that Buster had to go for his shots at 10:30 and I didn’t want to get too involved in anything. Somehow I figured that staying horizontal would be a more productive use of my time as opposed to say going for a walk or doing some carving. I am beginning to think that I am unable to prioritize my life. Only took six decades…

The vet gave Buster a clean bill of health. Well, his teeth have unhealthy plaque build up and I am supposed to brush his teeth on a regular basis. My dentist has trouble getting me to brush on a regular basis. The alternative is to take him in and have some doggy dentist scrape the plaque from his teeth. I can just see it now, Buster is unconscious and the vet is singing “ scrape…$10…scrape…$20…scrape…$30…etc.” I won’t tell you how much it would cost, because I have blanked that memory out for ever. The way I see it, is if Buster was or is worried about his teeth, he should have saved some money or gotten a job that came with a dental plan. The only drawback is that Louise was there and she can be a soft touch when it comes to animal suffering.

We stopped at Tim’s for a coffee on the way home, but I couldn’t enjoy it. I kept imagining some do gooder breaking the window on my car to protect Buster from suffering somehow. He had a blanket and the car was pleasantly warm when we left. Besides, if he were in the wild he would be running from the coyotes, mountain lions, feral cats or any number of birds of prey. NO birds of prey were getting in my car without the proper key fob!

After that; lunch and a little puttering until I went out for coffee again with my buddy. When I got home I did a little more puttering and then out to pick up something for dinner. Ham and scalloped potatoes if you must know. More puttering after supper did the dishes and more puttering. I did put the finishing touches on an end grain cutting board I made. The cutting board should work fine; after all it is wood and flat…ish which are the key attributes of a cutting board. Tomorrow I must find something to cut.

That kind of brings me up to the present. Blog is pretty much done and I am ready to pack it in for the night. I my have another busy day tomorrow like I had today.