

Mr. H and Biscuit whipped up these two birdhouses in about an hour after I lamented that that Mrs. Robin had abandoned her task after her nest materials blew out of the crook of the tree one too many times. The "nest platform" on the left is for the robin. See? Hopefully she's a literate robin.

Biscuit decorated the roof with chalk after we decided the paint job she did on the nuthatch home didn't exactly enhance the rustic beauty of the birdhouse.

With help from daddy, Biscuit glued and nailed the birdhouse pieces together

It took her a minute to warm up but she got really into the hammering. (BTW, do you like how this post is going in reverse chronological order?)
A few days ago, having had the idea of building a birdhouse in my head for a while but not yet having seen the plight of the robin, I was flipping through a book I bought to cut up for a project (appears I should be trying to sell it online--I have volume N through O--home of "nature projects") where I happened upon a page of detailed info on bird house construction and the appropriate house size, hole size, hole height and house height for various species. Then, today, I found this site (via google) that lists common backyard birds in my county so we settled on nuthatch and robin. The two species that are common in my county year around that were also listed in the book.
Having a woodworker for a husband is very handy at times like these. He cut the pieces (beveled and everything) out of redwood scrap from our garden planter boxes. I was thinking this would be a fun thing to sell online as a kit--you could order for whatever bird (that is in the Audobon book). I'll have to think on that one...
Anyway, hope your weekend was spectacular! I had such a busy time I'll have posts all week.