The Value Village Goose and Gander (Plus tips for Displaying Birdhouses)

Sometimes birds can choose the craziest places to make their nests. 

That's the napping baby bird peeking over the edge of the pot just to the left of Mom's little black eye.

This grey dove decided a plant pot hanging on someone's front porch was the perfect spot to make her nest. Amazingly enough, this plant pot was inches from the homeowner's front door. 

If the dove's nesting site wasn't cuckoo enough, check out this Canadian Goose who made her nest on the narrow boulevard in the middle of busy Brampton shopping mall.  With a clear view of Value Village charity shop, I think she must be a bird with a keen eye for a bargain!

While urban development has pushed many wild and birds animals out, others seem to have adapted. Racoons, foxes and coyotes all live in our cities and skirt confrontations with humans by coming and going under cover of night. 

Canadian Geese however, seem to be a bit more brazen. You find them in city parks, golf courses, and even grazing on lawns in light industry areas. They seem to think nothing of strolling across a busy road with a long line of fuzzy grey goslings in tow.

We watched the Value Village Goose carefully covered her eggs with leaves, twigs and bits of garbage. Then she flew off in search of food.

A few minutes later, her mate flew in and took over the task of keeping the eggs warm. Just in case I had any malicious intentions, the gander turned his body in my direction and didn't take his beady black eyes off me. 

Though we Canadians have a reputation for being friendly lot, Canadian Geese are anything but! They'll hiss and snap, if you ever dare to come near.

The pair of Canadian Geese aren't the only ones nesting. Most birds are busy feathering a nest at this time of year.

Birdsong is one of the great joys of spring gardening. The excitment underscoring all the chitter-chatter is infectious. 

We have had a mated pair of cardinals in the garden for a number of years. When we began preparatory work to remove the two damaged trees in the back corner of the garden last weekend, my husband found the female cardinal's body lying in the no man's land between our backyard fence and the Region of Peel's new sound barrier fencing on the other side. 

Did she fly in and then get trapped by the narrow confines of the two adjacent fences? Whatever the reason, it made me sad to find her. 

I will miss her daily visits to the bird feeder that hangs just outside my kitchen window. 

A picture from a few summers ago

I like to encourage birds to visit and nest in the garden, but the majority of the birdhouses in my garden are more decorative than functional. I suppose I like their whimsy.

And speaking of Value Village...I bought this birdhouse there for $12. It was an ugly combination of yellow and green when I got it.

I primed it and then used a mix of colors to create a distressed crackle finish. I am not sure how I will hang it just yet. 

Here are some of the creative ways to display birdhouses in a garden that I have noted:

Private Garden, near Uxbridge ON

1. Display them on an old painted ladder.

Private Garden, near Uxbridge ON

2. Paint an old staircase spindle and attach a small birdhouse to the top of it.

Private Garden, near Uxbridge ON

3. Use a copper pipe as your pole.

I find that most of the birdhouses that you find in stores don't hold up very well in winter weather, so I like to overwinter mine in our shed. To make them easier to display in summer and then remove in fall, we came up with this little trick:

Take a scrap of wood (the size is less important than the thickness. You want a 1/2" thickness to attach the dowel properly). 

Drill a 1/4" hole in the centre of the scrap wood. 

Apply outdoor glue to one end of a 6" length of  1/4"dowel. Insert the dowel into your drilled hole and allow the glue to dry. Now attach your dowel mount to the bottom of your birdhouse and paint it to match. 

Choose your birdhouse location. Take a 6 foot length of copper pipe and pound it into the ground with a mallet/ hammer. This pole will stay permanently in place in the garden. (I like to hide the pole in some shrubbery.) 

When you want to display your birdhouse, simply slip the dowel down into the length of copper pipe.

My garden

Private garden in Brampton, ON

4. It is also a nice idea to display your decorative birdhouses in a village sized grouping.

We're in the Hayfield Now, Daylily Nursery

5. You can put larger birdhouses at the top of a fence post.

Metal fence post spikes make it easy to do. 

As a little aside, I thought I should point out how nice and tidy these beds of daylilies 

look when edged with hosta. 

We're in the Hayfield Now, Daylily Nursery

Here is an incredibly detailed birdhouse complete with a Canadian flag.

We're in the Hayfield Now, Daylily Nursery

Pretty blue one with a tiled roof.

Beth Powell's Garden

7. Group them with other objects if you like a flea market style.

A neighbour's garden

8. Attach them to a tall fence post or arbor.

9. Use a fancy plant hook to hang them on a wall.

A private garden in Eramosa Township

10. And of course the most bird friendly idea would be to hang them in a tree.

If all goes well, the Value Village goose and gander will have 5 little goslings. I worry that the young goslings will not fair well in a busy mall parking lot. Time will tell...

Have a wonderful weekend!

P.S. Here is a link to Gardener's World Episode 9 from the 2014 RHS Malvern Spring Festival.