More chores
A Carolina wren made a nest in the nose of my favorite canoe, Moxie. I thought I had caught it in time and I pulled the nest out--only to see three tiny white eggs with brown speckles in it. So I put it back in the nose of the canoe and patted it clumsily back into shape as much as I could, and tiptoed away, like a big giant that pulled someone's thatch roof off by mistake and now hopes she put it back well enough that nobody will notice.
I know I didn't kill the eggs because when I looked in very quietly a month later I saw baby birds. But if I wasn't quiet enough the birds would pull back in the nest and hide, so when I didn't see birds for a while I wasn't sure if they had fledged or not.
I have a FLIR IR camera that snaps onto my iPhone. I hadn't used it for a while; it's a bit bulky and clunky and while it's amusing to see the world in false color based on the temperatures of things (and window glass reflects IR like a mirror, which is kind of weird), it's not so fascinating that I want to do it all the time. But Kip pointed out that it would surely work to tell if the nest was really empty or if the baby birds were just hiding. So I pulled it out, charged it up, and snapped it on the phone, and verified that the nest was empty. I put on gloves, because birds nests can host some really bitey insect life, and removed the nest. Carolina wrens nests are lots of twigs and dry grass and dried out Spanish moss and the like--really loosely packed together with a rounded spot in the middle for the eggs.
While I was at it, I used the FLIR to check if there were any babies hiding in the robin's nest in the crook of the downspout by the bathroom window. I don't know why the robins like that particular downspout, but they've built a nest on it three years running. The nest was cold, so I got out my folding ladder, unfolded it to its fullest extension, and took the nest down. Then I took a bowl of water and a scrub brush up the ladder and cleaned the mud off the downspout and the side of the house. Robins nests are like green pottery, if potters also used a lot of grass. They are little horizontal bowls of dried mud with straw embedded in it.
I set the two nests side by side on the grass and took a picture.
With the rest of my day I finished making the shelf for Kip's weights. I put in some nice touches (if I do say so myself) like a cutting a low arch in each of the 2x4s holding up the middle and top shelves, so that there would be a bit more room for Kip to reach in and set his heavier weights in there. My workshop is pretty nicely set up now: the bandsaw was great for cutting the arches, the Shopsmith in Drill press configuration worked for drum sanding the arches and the cut edges of the plywood--I could use a few more of the good bar clamps, but aside from that I'm happy with it.
I have a picture of that also.
I am tired and my back hurts but it is worth it to have all those weights off the rumpus room floor. I have been meaning to do this for at least two years, so it's good to finally have it dealt with.
I know I didn't kill the eggs because when I looked in very quietly a month later I saw baby birds. But if I wasn't quiet enough the birds would pull back in the nest and hide, so when I didn't see birds for a while I wasn't sure if they had fledged or not.
I have a FLIR IR camera that snaps onto my iPhone. I hadn't used it for a while; it's a bit bulky and clunky and while it's amusing to see the world in false color based on the temperatures of things (and window glass reflects IR like a mirror, which is kind of weird), it's not so fascinating that I want to do it all the time. But Kip pointed out that it would surely work to tell if the nest was really empty or if the baby birds were just hiding. So I pulled it out, charged it up, and snapped it on the phone, and verified that the nest was empty. I put on gloves, because birds nests can host some really bitey insect life, and removed the nest. Carolina wrens nests are lots of twigs and dry grass and dried out Spanish moss and the like--really loosely packed together with a rounded spot in the middle for the eggs.
While I was at it, I used the FLIR to check if there were any babies hiding in the robin's nest in the crook of the downspout by the bathroom window. I don't know why the robins like that particular downspout, but they've built a nest on it three years running. The nest was cold, so I got out my folding ladder, unfolded it to its fullest extension, and took the nest down. Then I took a bowl of water and a scrub brush up the ladder and cleaned the mud off the downspout and the side of the house. Robins nests are like green pottery, if potters also used a lot of grass. They are little horizontal bowls of dried mud with straw embedded in it.
I set the two nests side by side on the grass and took a picture.
With the rest of my day I finished making the shelf for Kip's weights. I put in some nice touches (if I do say so myself) like a cutting a low arch in each of the 2x4s holding up the middle and top shelves, so that there would be a bit more room for Kip to reach in and set his heavier weights in there. My workshop is pretty nicely set up now: the bandsaw was great for cutting the arches, the Shopsmith in Drill press configuration worked for drum sanding the arches and the cut edges of the plywood--I could use a few more of the good bar clamps, but aside from that I'm happy with it.
I have a picture of that also.
I am tired and my back hurts but it is worth it to have all those weights off the rumpus room floor. I have been meaning to do this for at least two years, so it's good to finally have it dealt with.