Evicted

This was my first time evicting an avian family, and I was a little bit sad to do it. A pair of house sparrows built on top of the last bluebird nest after the bluebirds fledged. The sparrows' nest filled the box and started coming out the sides, but I never could see which birds were nesting in the birdhouse. One of the days we were working on the garden, I finally had proof of who had moved in. I almost let them stay, but I really, REALLY love having my yard full of bluebirds, and if I let the house sparrows stay, they'd chase the bluebirds away. I scooped out their nest and was a bit sad to see I was a little bit too late -- there was a lonely egg in the bottom. The sparrows were persistent and within the hour, they started rebuilding even though I was working on the garden right next to the birdhouse. Again, I removed their building supplies and they sat on the fence tweeting at me. After several reruns of the same scene, I squirted the house out with the hose, and propped open the front so it could dry. The silly sparrows tried again, but eventually gave up. That all happened on May 4th, and today, I'm excited that the birdhouse has four bluebird eggs waiting to hatch.