Moving Day and First Yard Birds

We drove to the new house on Super Bowl Sunday with a carload of stuff and both of us sick with nasty head colds. We rented a minivan to take the first load of things to the new house. With light traffic due to the sports ball game, we made it there in under 8 hours. But when we arrived, it was after dark, and because of a snafu with the lockboxes, we couldn’t get into the house. We ended up staying in a motel that night, but probably slept better than we would’ve on the floors of the new house. And I told Michelle, it’ll be better to see the house empty for the first time in the daylight.

On the drive, the thought kept occurring to me: What if the new house isn’t “bird-y?” I kept telling myself, even if we don’t see many birds, eventually we will, when we put up bird feeders. But, I was a bit worried that we’d bought a house for the sole purpose of being able to watch birds from the windows. What if no birds showed up…?

We drove to the house and it soon became apparent that it wasn’t going to be an issue. Woodpeckers called from the Mesquite trees in the front yard as we unloaded the minivan. House finches and Cactus Wrens were also serenading us as we trudged back and forth. The guy arrived to install the internet soon after we finished. Michelle and I took a walk around our 5 acres of land.

I noticed that there were many different nests in various trees around the property. I was thrilled to see some House Sparrows sitting on branches close to a nest.

House Sparrows by a Nest

There is a large Pyrocantha bush on the property that the birds seemed to love. Also, scattered around are various brush piles of ashy tree limbs that looked like trimmings. Our realtor told us we’d need to have these removed as they’re a fire hazard, but I could tell that the birds were loving them.

There was a large raised garden bed area with the remnants of overgrown chili and tomato plants. A drip irrigation system was set up, but the entire area definitely hadn’t been maintained well. As we continued to survey the property, I kept making mental notes of all the projects to undertake. The property has a large chicken coop and animal pen, but chickens will have to wait.

Hummingbirds zinged through the yard but then were gone. Michelle spotted a covey of Gamble’s Quail scurrying across the yard–one of my favorites!! All in all, I was quite happy with the first day’s list of birds we saw that day.