A bluebird was spotted on the weekend, so I cleaned some of my birdhouse today and I found most of the houses occupied with furry squatters. I evicted many single mice and many houses had pairs of mice too and I imagine some are going to try to rebuilt their nests.
Furry Squatter
Eventually the snow may melt enough for me to walk out to clean the birdhouses and I may encounter some squatters who don’t want to be evicted, like this cute little field mouse.
Birdhouse Squatter
While cleaning the birdhouses, I did have one box with a furry rodent refusing to vacate the birdhouse, even with me pushing and poking the mouse. So maybe he heard that in some places, he couldn’t be evicted because of the coronavirus. The mouse might have been more scared of the hawk circling overhead than me and it went right back into the birdhouse as soon as I closed the door.
No Eviction
After a one day break, Mother Nature decided to throw down some of those white flakes again today. While cleaning bluebird houses this morning, I found some white color nest materials which some rodents used over winter. I also spotted the white belly of a mouse that had to leave quickly when I opened the bird house.
White Belly
Yesterday afternoon I cleaned out a bunch of bluebird houses since some bluebirds have returned a few days ago. There was a lot of evidence of winter squatters in the houses but this was the first year that I didn’t have to forcibly evict the rodents from the boxes. Maybe they had cabin fever from the long winter and they all ventured out on the nice day.
Previous Squatter
The first sunny day in a while had the birds singing, which included some spring birds arrival like bluebirds and killdeers. So it was time to clean the bluebird houses yet and evict the squatters who moved in over winter. And I had to remove a lot of field mice, although the males must have ticked off the females as most houses only had one occupant and I only found one couple. But I did have to feel a little sorry for some of them as one had a ripped ear and this one was missing a front leg so didn’t scramble down the pole when I cleaned the house.
Three Legged Mouse
