Every year I hang flower baskets off the back deck, filled with coir, that coconut fiber. Every year, the birds rob the coir for their nests. This year, I hung a net bag of it for their convenience, hoping they will finish nesting before I put out my flowers. Just for fun, I added a variety of yarn ends to it, so the birds in my neighborhood will have the coolest , most colorful nests in town.
Among our birdhouses, we have t
wo ceramic ones from
magnificent potter Douglas Fey. (Check out his website!) Both have been up for an entire season now, and this morning, a chickadee was investigating the fish, and not for the first time. So I primed the pump, so to speak, with a little coir and a nice blue piece of soft cashmere.
We have another Fey birdhouse, his interpretation of a pelican, my all-time favorite bird. Al and I go down to the Rogue River frequently, and I just cannot get enough of these awesome birds. I’ve resisted collecting little pelican things, though, as I’m not a collector, but when I saw what Doug Fey does with all the rest of his critters, I had to ask him to make me a pelican. I haven’t seen any birds looking into this guy’s mouth yet, though, but I gave prospective tenants a nice bit of curly straw and a length of turquoise silk to tempt them with.
I hope they find our housing suitable. That would be great fun.
