Over the years, we have installed dozens of nest boxes throughout the Garden. These boxes target secondary cavity nesters – species of birds that nest inside hollow spaces but have no means to excavate the hollow themselves (like woodpeckers can). Of the 8 species in our area that conceivably could utilize these boxes, we regularly get 3; House Wren, Bewick’s Wren and Oak Titmouse. Susan’s hope each spring is for a Western Bluebird family to nest in one. For me, it’s an Ash-throated Flycatcher couple adopting a box. And although both are regularly seen in the Garden, neither of these species has nested on the property during the years I have been keeping track.
But no worries. Every year as the garden matures, it creates more suitable habitat for even more types of native animals. I’m confident that one spring Susan will get her bluebirds and I my Ash-throated Flycatchers.
Observing nature is a practice in patience...and that practice leads to Zen.
Western Bluebird - Sialia mexicana
Ash-throated Flycatcher - Myiarchus cinerascens