Relative Something

It’s so wonderful living in the country surrounded by all manner of growing trees and plants, as well as the abundant wildlife that inhabit our forests. Right up until the point when the birds try to nest where we don’t want them. Even though there is an abundance of trees to choose from, they prefer manmade structures, like our house and barn.

We’ve made progress interrupting the habits of the pigeons under the overhang, but a new irritation has arisen from different birds up at the house. Cyndie thinks it might be a robin because she saw one sitting outside the front door for a long time, and it appeared to get upset with us standing around on the front steps.

The problem we are having is that this bird seems to want to make a nest out of mud. We keep finding splatterings of dirt all over the front steps. Five minutes after sweeping the steps and landing, the dirt returns. We figured out the bird was grabbing potting soil from the planter on the garage window, so Cyndie tried covering it up.

With the top covered, I noticed evidence of dirt being pulled from around the edges. Cyndie stretched plastic wrap around the dirt. Not long after that, since the dirt was still falling on the front steps, I looked around and saw dirt disturbed in a nearby free-standing planter. Cyndie covered that.

When we stepped out of the house yesterday, Cyndie noticed dirt and moss pieces scattered across the roof over the entryway. I got on a ladder and looked everywhere for evidence of where they might be trying to build a nest,d but found nothing.

Out in the yard, I found more planters that Cyndie was trying to protect.

“I paid good money for that planting soil!” Cyndie exclaimed.

I brought a bucket up the ladder and swept off the shingles and gutter cover as best as possible. I don’t know why that would dissuade the birds from trying again, but for the rest of the day, we didn’t need to sweep the steps another time.

Would that it be that easy.

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