It’s time to start cleaning out feeders, nest boxes, birdbaths
I start sneezing this time of year due to allergies from who-knows-what, which oddly serves as a tickler to clean nest boxes, bird feeders and birdbaths.
Joined by my wife, I hurried with the cleaning as trees were budding, birds were singing and bluebirds were rummaging inside their nest boxes.
Nest boxes: We scooped out old nesting material from all nest boxes lest it harbor mites harmful to chicks. Then we scraped the boxes with a stiff brush. If mildew had built up in a box, we washed it with a mild solution of dishwashing liquid and water, rinsed it thoroughly with plain water and let it dry on the porch before reinstalling it on a tree or on a pole.
One of the boxes had a loose panel due to a loosened nail. A hammer and a new nail fixed that problem. We checked the other boxes for structural integrity, as building engineers say.
We don’t use decorative nest boxes with fancy ornaments. Paint inside such boxes can be harmful to baby birds. Nor do we have nest boxes with perches near the entrance holes. Cats, raccoons and snakes grab onto ornaments and perches to get inside nest boxes and attack birds, eggs and chicks.
While nest boxes attract native cavity-nesting birds, such as Eastern screech-owls, wrens and Eastern
bluebirds, the boxes also attract nonnative invasive house sparrows and European starlings. We immediately toss out their nests or nesting material.
Bird feeders: We clean bird feeders with water from a garden hose attached to a highpressure nozzle. We also scrub the feeders with a bottle brush, dip feeders in a bucket of water with a 10 percent bleach solution, rinse thoroughly with a water hose and let them dry in the sun. Hummingbird feeders get washed in the kitchen sink.
Our feeders contain reliable birdseed from local nature stores, such as Wild Birds Unlimited, Just for the Birds in Old Town Spring or feed stores. Good birdseed is also available online at wbu.com or duncraft. com. Feed stores usually sell bags of fresh sunflower seed.
We avoid birdseed mixes from discount stores because it typically contains large amounts of cracked wheat, cracked corn and milo, none of which nourishes birds and usually winds up on the ground to attract rats.
Birdbaths: We have a concrete birdbath that provides the needed rough surface for birds to stand on. We scrub it like we’d scrub our own bathtub. It’s critical that birdbath water always be fresh because birds can get bacterial diseases, such as salmonellosis, from dirty birdbaths. An eyedropper of baby oil in the birdbath prevents pathogen-carrying mosquitoes from breeding in the water.