Bandits in the neighborhood

Well, it's another sad time for me and my feathered friends. The gang of masked bandits came through with a vengeance the other night. The raccoons got into my birds seed which I thought was pretty secure. I always take the seed out of the bags it comes in and put it into buckets with lids then place inside a deck box. Well, they figured that out and got in the deck box and opened three of the five buckets I have in there. All I can say is they prefer Duncraft's Chickadee Blend (http://www.duncraft.com/Duncraft-Chickadee-Blend) because they throw that everywhere and ate every nut in the bucket. What a mess!

The saddest thing is that they destroyed the bluebird nest and all the babies are gone. The picture here was taken the day before the attack. I was scared that the mama didn't make it but happy to report that both mama and papa bluebird survived. I've moved the house about five feet and secured it to some lattice-work on the side of my house. I was hoping to do this early this spring but the birds beat me to it this year. If you don't know, this particular bird house was one I was going to throw away last year. However I changed my mind and sit it on the end of my deck while I decided where to hang it. In that time this pair of bluebirds build a nest in it so I simply bungee corded it to a pole to make sure the wind didn't blow it off. Anyway, last year they successfully raised three groups of babies in it!

This morning I'm happy to report that the pair is already exploring new nesting places. I've seen them go into the house the chickadees where in, which I'm a little nervous about since I still have no clue what happened to that nest. I'm hoping that will come back to their old box but they might not like the five feet difference. Either way, I'm just happy that they both survived the attack of the masked bandits and are still together!