Mary Cope
Spring has finally sprung and our springtime friends are back! The birds are establishing their territories and pairing off, getting ready to start their own families. You can see them carrying little twigs or strand of grasses with which to build sturdy little nests.
One thing you can do to help out these birds is to set up a shallow dish with nesting materials in it! Birds like materials that can be shaped and molded to form the inside lining of their nests, which is where the babies live; so make sure it is something soft. In the dish, you can place some bits of yarn and string, but stay away from paper materials. Also, if you have a dog, like a German Shepherd or a Labrador, with a thick, double layered coat, you know that this time of year they start shedding like crazy! Instead of throwing the hair away, put it in the dish! The birds love soft, warm, undercoat to line their nests. If you don’t own a dog, you can take some of the lint out of the lint screen in your dryer; that, too, is soft and provides excellent insulation for the baby birds!
You will notice little birds, such as robins, sparrows, and finches, taking materials once they discover your gifts. It is very likely that, if you find a nest, it will have the nesting materials you set out incorporated into it!
