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Birdhouse

This is where we don't want anything but evidence of your finest wood butchering in all its glorious, and photograph laden glory. Bring your finished products or WIP's, we love them all, so long as there's pictures, and plenty of 'em!

Birdhouse

Postby Woodbloke » 06 Aug 2020, 13:06

When I was working for Ax some years ago, I was asked to do a series of articles for 'The Knowledge' blog, one of which was a birdhouse. The projects in this series were designed to be relatively easy to construct and if memory serves there were a few of them inc bookends, a pull along child's toy and and one or two others.

The first time I did this I just made a bird box, with a hole and a peg....nothing fancy. It was subsequently published on The Knowledge blog and created veritable howls of protest from the twitcher brigade :D

The box was too big, the hole was too big, there shouldn't be a peg etc, etc, blah, blah. Dear God, we couldn't believe in the office what we'd started, so within a very few days the storm of abuse was nicknamed 'birdgate' and the article was removed.

I did a bit of research, contacted the RSPB who were pretty forthright about what was and was not wanted in a bloody birdbox! I then remade the box which was then published and the article is still on the website.

However time and tide haven't been kind to my birdhouse...

IMG_4810.jpg
(265.5 KiB)


...and as it was now a source of constant irritation, it was time to replace it, even though we'd had plenty of finches nesting in it over the last few years.

What inspired me to make it was a post from the turner Richard Findley a couple of weeks ago on InstaG. He made a superb coopered box with a mounting bracket that was fixed to the tree with strips of rubber. The box was then fixed to the bracket using a couple of keyhole slots so that it could easily be removed each year for cleaning.

Scratching round the 'shop for some suitable material, I came across some bits of Douglas Fir from and old blanket chest that I recently broken up:

IMG_4811.jpg
(223.49 KiB)


This stuff is reasonably easy to work with and is very durable, so it seemed ideal.
Construction was done entirely with No.0 size biscuits and Everbuild D4 glue. I also made a solid, very 'floaty' base with numerous drainage holes:

IMG_4814.jpg
(178.46 KiB)


IMG_4813.jpg
(150.45 KiB)


The bracket was made from a few bits of substantial fir and and some oddments of 25x3mm thick brass strip. Each 'arm' was joined to the vertical with a dollop of glue and a pair of 50mm brass c/s screws...belt n'braces :D

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(209.31 KiB)


IMG_4812.jpg
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The roof was made with a couple of bits of fir biscuited together and it's held onto the box itself with four, 4mm birch ply 'tabs' with slot screwed brass r/h screws to secure it.

Yesterday afternoon, I used some strips of velocipede inner tube (incredibly useful stuff in the 'shop) to lash the bracket to the tree;

IMG_4821.jpg
(275.11 KiB)


I finished the box with severial coats of Osmo external oil and when it was dry, I nailed on a bit of roofing felt, screwed in the two ss pan head screws into the back and then hung it onto the bracket;

IMG_4823.jpg
(245.06 KiB)


I'm sure we had some green finches visit the old box this year, but my neighbour who's a ecologist by profession informed me that they were quite rare and if we see any more, I was to drag him round to our garden asap :D We shall see what avian visitors pass by next year and decide to set up home for the Spring - Rob
I no longer work for Axminster Tools & Machinery.
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Re: Birdhouse

Postby Mike G » 06 Aug 2020, 13:32

[Irony mode] Drainage holes! DRAINAGE HOLES!!! You mean wasp entry holes. Are you trying to kill off our birdlife? Are you some sort of evil torturer who gets his kicks from seeing birds suffer? People like you make my blood boil.....:lol: [/Irony mode]

That's the sort of thing you meant, I guess...
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Re: Birdhouse

Postby Rod » 06 Aug 2020, 13:36

How do you clean it - take the top off?

If the finches are Green ones, they are very common here.

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Re: Birdhouse

Postby Woodbloke » 06 Aug 2020, 13:43

Rod wrote:How do you clean it - take the top off?

If the finches are Green ones, they are very common here.

Rod


I'm not very clever with the birdies Rod, but the one's we saw earlier this year appeared to be green all over, so I assumed they were finches of the green variety. The roof just comes off using the four brass screws in the birch ply tabs

Mike G wrote:[Irony mode] Drainage holes! DRAINAGE HOLES!!! You mean wasp entry holes. Are you trying to kill off our birdlife? Are you some sort of evil torturer who gets his kicks from seeing birds suffer? People like you make my blood boil.....:lol: [/Irony mode]

That's the sort of thing you meant, I guess...


Richard Findley used drainage 'oles in his box and I thought it sounded a sensible thing to do. Easily 'pluggedupable' though with some 6mm dowel if we see an infestation of wasps - Rob
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Re: Birdhouse

Postby fiveeyes » 07 Aug 2020, 01:12

Your fine feathered friend's will love it, Rob.
some window screen will keep the nasties out of said drain 'oles
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Re: Birdhouse

Postby Woodbloke » 07 Aug 2020, 06:33

fiveeyes wrote:Your fine feathered friend's will love it, Rob.
some window screen will keep the nasties out of said drain 'oles

Good idea about covering the drainage 'oles with some mesh; the RSPB recommended tacking a bit on the inside to aid the bird getting out
Edit - an old pair of SWIMBO's tights have been commandeered, chopped up and stuck down with ds tape to a thin aero ply frame, now placed over the 'oles on the inside of the box - Rob
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Re: Birdhouse

Postby Robert » 07 Aug 2020, 09:35

That is a deluxe birdhouse. Hope it gets used. Seems the nicer you make something the less likely it is to get used.

Green birds round here tend to be screeching wild parrots. no greenfinches but we do get goldfinches.
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Re: Birdhouse

Postby Rod » 07 Aug 2020, 10:54

Haven’t seen the Green Parakeets down here since 1976.
Saw lots of them when my daughter lived in South Woodford.

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Re: Birdhouse

Postby Woodbloke » 07 Aug 2020, 15:27

Robert wrote:Green birds round here tend to be screeching wild parrots. no greenfinches but we do get goldfinches.

That's a new one on me Robert. I thought that parrots inhabited hotter climes; the only place I've seen them was in Costa Rica - Rob
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Birdhouse

Postby Rod » 07 Aug 2020, 23:32

They think a breeding pair escaped an aviary and found the climate not too bad
Now fly around in large noisy flocks

Image


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Re: Birdhouse

Postby Robert » 07 Aug 2020, 23:36

Woodbloke wrote:That's a new one on me Robert. I thought that parrots inhabited hotter climes; the only place I've seen them was in Costa Rica - Rob


Been round here for quite a while. This thread from 2015 has some pictures

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=1141&p=13651

We heard there had been a cull as last year flocks of 200+ were around and flying across our garden at times. This year not seen more than 25 at once fly over.
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