Derelict Sunday: Spring Cleaning

Today we hiked around our property opening up the Bluebird nest boxes and cleaning them out in preparation for the birds' return. We cleared out several houses and all contained nests. 

It appears that only two of the nests actually housed Bluebirds. In years past we have seen swallows, house wrens and even flying squirrels take up residence in these dwellings. The flying squirrels are especially terrible tenants! They shred the inside of the cedar nest boxes to make their nests. We have had to patch some boxes when squirrels have shredded all the way through the wall of the box.

The extras include (what I think is) a flying squirrel nest taken out of a box today. The second extra is of a flying squirrel that surprised us when we were cleaning boxes one autumn. The squirrel scurried out of the box and immediately ran around to the opposite side of the tree, scampered further up the tree trunk and then opened its arms and glided away to safety in another tree. They are nocturnal and have very large eyes for their size.