HOUSEKEEPING

I went out in the backyard, looked up at the crystal blue cloudless sky and watched as leaves slowly swirl down from the trees. “Isn’t it beautiful out?” I called to my son Alex who was up on the porch.

“It sure is.” he sat down in his chair. “Are you going to fill the bird feeders?” he asked.

I looked over at the empty feeders. “I just filled them yesterday!”

Alex shrugged his shoulders. “They must be really hungry.”

“It’s not the birds.” I said sounding annoyed. “It’s the deer that clean them out every night.” I went up on the porch to get the bird food. Bringing the can down to the feeders I began to fill them up. Looking over at the bird bath I could see it was filled with pine needles. “I guess this could use a refill too.”

Alex went and got the watering can. Bringing it over he set it down while I tipped the bird bath over and began refilling it.

As I was bringing the food back up on the deck I looked over at my little bird house. “I should clean that out today too. Get it ready for next spring’s guests.”

Alex went and sat back up on the porch while I went and took our bird house off it’s Shepard’s hook. Bringing it up on the porch I took a peek inside the opening. “Housekeeping!” I called as looked over at Alex and smiled. “Just making sure our guests have left for the season.”

Alex just shook his head and laughed. “I’m pretty sure they left last spring.”

We’d had fun watching a family of Black-Capped Chickadees being raised inside around May.

I pulled the nail that was holding the side of the house closed. Then slowly lifted it to peek inside. “Well, this one’s sure different.”

Alex came over. “What do you mean?”

“Last year when I cleaned it out it was filled with six inches of moss, sticks, and even a piece of ribbon.” I turned the bird house around so Alex could see inside. “This one’s only two inches deep.”

“Ewe, what’s that?” he asked pointing to something in the nest.

I reached for a stick and began pulling the nest out of the house. It plopped out on the porch with a little thud. We both looked down at the fuzzy lining at the top of the nest. “I think it’s dog or cat hair.” I poked it with a stick but it was tightly embedded in the nest. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.” I looked over at Alex. “Not that I’ve cleaned out dozens of bird houses.”

Alex took a closer look. “You know it makes sense.”

“It does?” I was still poking it with the stick.

“Sure. That’s why it isn’t a deep as last years. They didn’t have to collect as many sticks because they used the fur as the insulation.”

I nodded in agreement. “That makes sense.” I looked over at Alex. “I guess we had a pretty smart little family living in here.” I brushed the rest of the nest out of the birdhouse before putting the side down and putting the nail back in it’s place. “Hey you know what?”

“What?”

“I just remembered. When I was little I had a friend who used to clean out her hair brush and throw it in the yard saying it was for the birds.”

Alex looked at me, a wary look on his face. “You’re not planning on cleaning out your hairbrush and throwing it in the yard now, are you?”

I shook my head. “Na, I think it would creep me out if I went to clean it out next fall and saw my hair in there.” I went back to the shepherd hook and put the birdhouse back in it’s place. “They’ll just have to go find that dog or cat again and wrestle it from them.”