It’s amazing. Someone in the Hardy Mountain and Reservoir Road areas must dislike cavity nesting birds, such as bluebirds, chickadees, swallows and wrens.
For the second year, they’ve smashed the lids of several nesting boxes. They likely used a heavy sledge hammer, because when I repaired last year’s boxes and made some new ones, I used heavy, double headed nails at an angle through almost two inches of plywood. The nails either got bent, or the plywood was smashed, a difficult feat to accomplish.
Whoever you are, you have won: once could be vandalism, but twice is deliberate. I have taken down 13 of the 16 nesting boxes in this area, leaving only three, occupied by bluebirds or wrens. These boxes will be removed when vacant, and none of the boxes will be replaced. A sad defeat for Mother Nature and our area.
In the last six years, the nesting boxes in our valley have fledged 866 young bluebirds, 204 wrens, 63 chickadees and 1,044 swallows.
Dr. Ernest Whelan, Grand Forks