Spring is upon us and I have been thinking about ways to encourage birds to spend time in our yard.
The obvious answer would be to provide food and shelter for them.
We only have this one bird house situated near our fire pit.
I have some ideas of different bird houses that I would like to try to build.
Feeders are a bit more tricky. I find that the birdseed always gets wet and yucky.
Squirrels often get access to the birdseed before the birds do.
Not too sure where I want to go with feeders but here is one idea I would like to try.
The other thing I would like to do to help the birds would be to leave out some items that birds might find useful to build their nests.
I was thinking about yarn and dryer lint until I read this article outlining the dangers of using both.
Yarn can get caught around a baby bird’s legs or neck.
Dryer lint has chemicals from the detergent and fabric softeners.
Some safe suggestions were:
Cloth strips cut 3-6″ long and no more than 1″ wide
Small straw and twigs
Grass clippings
Animal Hair
Wool or cotton batting
Feathers – recycle old pillows
Moss
You can hang these items in a tree using plastic netting from fruit or veggies or a suet cage.
I love listening to try to pick out which bird is nearby by their song.
By building a few bird houses, bird feeders and providing nest materials, I hope to encourage more birds to visit our yard.
👍