Noisy Tenants, Nosy Landlady

We have new tenants. They hang out year round in the 'hood, but each spring, when they decide to have another go at child rearing, they take advantage of any local vacancy in the real estate market and move in.

I love it. I try and lure them to my spare unit by making sure that it is all clean and ready. This means fluffing up the dryer lint (don't look at me - they moved it all in there themselves) and evicting the over-wintering wasps. And if the previous tenants left a mess (unhatched eggs, one year), I tidy it all up. Finally, I never require first, last or a deposit.

So just who are these neighbors? Why the oak titmouse, of course, who's call is loud enough to chase away all those who might want to elbow (yup, birds have elbows, too) their way into a great rental space - other titmice, chickadees and wrens.

The box was a lovely gift (lucky me) from Sue Johnson who also made the wood burned image of the chickadee on its side. That was in 2004.

Since then, we have helped "raise" numerous generations of birds. At first, the chickadees had control of the unit. In recent years, the titmice have outmaneuvered the other contenders (they are just a little bit bigger, I think). I keep hoping for a wren to move into the box, but heck, they only moved into this neighborhood a few years ago.

Princess, the other interested, would-be ornithologist on the property, is not so discriminating. As long as there is someone with feathers going in and out of the box, she will perch on the composting bin and purr. Don't know what's going to happen when the babies start to peep...