Opening the Birdhouse
Every year I open the birdhouses after nesting season and clean them out. The cleaning part isn't all that interesting. What's interesting is seeing what's inside.
From the outside, most of the boxes look about the same. Same cedar. Same screws. Same weathered roof. After a season in the yard, they all start to blend together a little.
Then you open one.
Some are packed full of grass, feathers, and whatever else a bird decided belonged in there. So much material that you wonder how they managed to carry it all through that little entrance hole. Others have surprisingly little inside. Just a thin layer of grass, a few feathers, and not much else.
Every now and then I'll find what looks like more than one season pressed together. Layer on top of layer, packed down over time. I always wonder how long some of it has been in there.
Then sometimes I open one and find absolutely nothing. Those always make me stop for a second. The box looked occupied all year in my mind. Then I open it and realize I was telling myself a story that never happened.
It's funny how different they can be. Some nests look like they were built by a bird that planned every detail. Others look like they were thrown together in an afternoon and somehow worked out just fine.
Eventually I quit looking and get around to the reason I opened the box in the first place. The cleaning itself only takes a few minutes. I pull the old material out, make sure everything is dry, check that nothing has worked loose, and put the house back together.
Truth is, I usually spend more time looking than cleaning. Maybe it's curiosity. Maybe it's just wondering what happened in there while I was busy doing other things all summer.
Either way, by the time the box is closed back up, it feels a little different than it did when I opened it.
The cleaning takes a few minutes. The wondering lasts a little longer.
A note on what I found: Cornell Lab of Ornithology's NestWatch recommends waiting until there is no sign of breeding activity before cleaning out a nest box. If there's any doubt that the box is still being used, it's best to leave it alone and check again later.