Beech Tree News Network

My bluebirds are gone.  The bluebirds that have raised their young in a house made by my kids when they were in elementary school.  The bluebirds I have watched each spring for years flit from the fence post down into their house—the house that faces east, the direction they prefer—to check on their little ones.  

I have watched from my dining room window, hoping they were just late, asking out loud, “Where are they?  Why don’t they come back?”

I’ve watched other birds from that window.  Two pairs of cardinals, pecking around under the maple tree.  A pair of mocking birds, raising their young in the boxwood and fire bush at the end of my sidewalk, five feisty little juveniles, chasing one another in flight up into the maple tree, splashing around in the bird bath on the big rock over the well, the parents watching from the lamp post nearby.

The squirrels have come closer this year, the ones that usually hang out in the trees down around Garey’s shop.  They visit the maple tree regularly now.  A stray cat has moved into our barn.  He was afraid of us, then he wasn’t, then he was again.  I diagnosed him as bipolar until I realized I was encountering two identical gray cats.  The evil twin won out.  The friendly cat is no longer around.

I told Garey about the squirrels playing in the maple tree and how cute they were.  I told Garey how grateful I was to have the cat in the barn.  I have caught fewer mice in my house than ever before.

The bluebirds didn’t think the squirrels were cute.  They weren’t grateful for the cat, either.  Both animals pose a threat to their young.  Squirrels climb the fence posts and take over bluebird nests.

Cats climb the fence posts and eat their young.  I didn’t know I was supposed to cover the fence post in a slippery material so that neither animal could gain access to the nest.  I didn’t know until I Googled “Why haven’t my bluebirds returned?”

I don’t know if the situation can be fixed.  I’m not sure if I can cover the post in metal or PVC to make the nest inaccessible and get the bluebirds to come back.  Maybe, they are gone for good.

It is the balance of nature, I tell myself.  I remember the science article on the wolves of Yellowstone that my granddaughter and I read for her fourth-grade assignment.  The wolves were hunted and killed off.  After the wolves were gone, the moose flourished.  They over-grazed the vegetation.  The carrion birds, including Eagles, left the area because there were no moose carcasses to feed on.  The balance of nature was askew.  Wolves were reintroduced, and all was set right again.

I don’t care about the balance of nature in my front yard.  I want the squirrels to return to the trees around Garey’s shop.  I want the cat to find another barn, I will buy more mouse traps.  I want my bluebirds back.

I could intervene.  I could trap the squirrels and the cat and move them to other locations, but what balance of nature would I upset then?  No, I need to let it be, I tell myself.  How many situations in the human world have I intervened in where I made things worse?  Too many to count.  

I will fix the fence post and wait.  Maybe word will get to them that it’s safe to return, and I can watch my bluebirds raise their young again next spring.