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Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Expanding My Territory

I have expanded my bluebird box territory this week. My neighbor sits on about 6 acres of land. His house and immediate yard only takes up one acre, the rest is all grasslands with a couple medium size trees and a barn. It’s the perfect bluebird habitat.

I wasn’t too sure about how he would react to me asking for permission to put up a couple of bluebird boxes on his land so I thought a bit and came up with a foolproof plan. I got my cute little 3 year old daughter to walk over to his house with me. After a little small talk I started telling him about how much my daughter and I liked the birds, especially bluebirds, and how she liked to peak in the boxes and see the eggs – I then mentioned something about the American Bluebird Society, and maybe something about how bluebirds need our help, all of this while my daughter was looking up at him with her innocent little smile. Well, after laying it on as thick as I could and taking advantage of my daughter’s cuteness, he was practically begging us to put up the boxes, and not just one or two, but as many as we wanted!! Wow, that was easier than I thought. Hey, whatever works, right? That afternoon we put up one box (w/predator baffle) on his land. I plan to put up another one soon. Now on to the neighbors across the street – LOL!!

Here are a couple pics of my bluebirds I took last weekend:




2 comments:

Mary said...

Hi Alan,

The little girls have it! LOL! She must be very sweet.

The Bluebirds were everywhere last year. This year is a different story. I don't know why, really, but I'm guessing the frantic construction around here is driving them away.

But, we have a wildlife habitat project going on at the college campus where I work this year and we just purchased three bluebird nesting boxes. All I need to do is to find some strong men on campus to erect them - very soon! We'll keep our fingers crossed. Good luck with yours! I look forward to hearing about them.

Great photos. I'm jealous.

Mary

Alan Pulley said...

Hey Mary,
Good luck to you as well. As long as I can keep the House Sparrows away I'll be okay!