Cleaning House

Well, we can't have high art every day. This is the Tree Swallow's nest after it has been removed from the bird house. I wonder where they got all those brown feathers from? Must have been awkward getting them into the house. I tried helping them out by tossing out (domestic) goose feathers that I purchased, but they never seemed terribly interested.

The nest is square because that's the shape at the bottom of the box. There is quite a lot of poop in it, although it's quite dry and granular. I think the birds stop removing it as fledging time approaches to encourage the chicks to leave. Otherwise, the nest was in good shape - no blowfly larvae, no mites, no unhatched eggs and thankfully no dead birds. 

There was a wasp's nest underneath the nesting cavity, but the wasps seemed rather dopey and they wouldn't have had access to the birds.

The house is now clean and de-wasped and we'll put it back up when it dries out. The swallows will not be back - they only nest once - but the bluebirds may well use it. It is a bluebird house after all.

NW Wisconsin