Bird nest material dispenser - 2

I posted yesterday what becomes the 'part 1' now.  See older post.  I closed with the expectation that I would capture the tailorbird drawing cotton from the dispenser.  It had spotted the source within 2-3 hours of hanging it there.  I waited this morning as most birds are known to devote more time to search and shunt to and fro the new nest with the materials during the morning as it will be cooler.  Sure enough, at around half past seven, the tailorbird made a revisit.  I was about 20 feet away, sitting still, camera on the ready!

It had already made some trips by the time I spotted this - see how the cotton is disturbed.  I sat there after my morning coffee.

I must remodel this.  If the cotton moves down, it cannot perch and draw.  Here it can reach from the branch. 

I mentioned in my last post about my plan for another dispenser for fibrous material.  Here it is and that is why this is 'part 2'.  I had stiff copper wire.  About 2 metres were required to coil it using a long-neck PET bottle. a tip I got in the link given in the previous post. I used a centre wire to hold the top and bottom at the same distance and this serves as the hanger also.  I needed this to prevent the copper coil from stretching down. 

I thank my squirrel that had collected all those jute thread fibres available for it when the construction activity was going on previously and the workers had used the jute threads for scaffolding.  There were some longer pieces of rope also in the squirrel nest!  Ask me where it had made.  It was on the bedroom window, in the gap between the insect screen and the always-closed bottom-half wooden window, safe from rain and sun.  I had removed and kept the entire abandoned nest in some corner.  It came in handy for this more than 6 months later.  Now I'm waiting to see if they need the fibres.  I'll put some thread pieces and may be cotton also here.

Bird nest material dispenser -1

Some months ago while browsing for some ideas of a bird house, I bumped into a site wherein a bird nest material dispenser was featured.  It was something like this: See the link having a very brief  post.  It was a project I could make and I knew it was needed for our little feathered friends as well, in particular, the tailorbird. 

April to August is supposed to be the nesting season for the tailorbird and yesterday I saw this:

I thought this is the right time to provide them some easy pickings for their nesting endeavours.  I found a no-longer-in-use bill holder.  Bills were pierced through the top of the wire and pushed down to the wooden stand, which is actually a base of my grandfather's trophy which is in the showcase.  The base was too big for the rack.

I poked some surgical cotton which I keep in the first-aid box and some thread in the form of cleaning waste cotton [red thing] which is very thready.  I thought the birds would like them. This is a beginning experiment.

Since the item was ready, it took no time to install.  I hung it around noon on the hibiscus plant where the tailorbirds frequent.  And in the evening, I saw the cotton being pulled from different sides!  I had later hung it on the curry plant as I could view it clearly from the room window.  Usually in the mornings they are more active collecting materials. Let me see if I can catch them on camera, picking [with thanks] cotton.

I now plan to add some coconut fibre and jute thread and do what you saw in the link I gave in the beginning.  I will be trying to improvise on this project.

I had already made a post on the nests with images.  See it here. [Click]

Yarden Re-shape

Gardeners do this oftentimes - reshaping or moving plants around!  I am no exception.  In my opinion, if a design is 'permanent' then there is no scope for creativity and we get new ideas every now and then.  So if there are 'movable assets' as I call stones, curbs and bricks, I can convert the seed ideas into fruition.

Now, all I did was to remove one half of the tomato trellis which was obscuring the path and a straight bed parallel to the 'dismantlable' moat-parapet.  The tomato plants had dried. So it was time to remove them.  I also observed that only one half of the trellis and a netting above it were sufficient for 3-4 tomato plants.  I shifted one half of the trellis - which actually is in the shape of a gate [iron] near the Gerbera plant.

Support frame that held the tomato plant - seen on left, one half retained.  See the other slightly to the right.

View from the other side.  See the straightened bed and the other frame. 

Another view.

Shade net can be seen. 

Last week, I also erected a shade net to protect the small yarden from the sun this summer which is expected to be quite warm due to a huge shortfall in the last monsoon.

A garden friend from Dave's Garden, Dee [who lives in a Dome-shaped Home] has sent me some 9-10 varieties of seeds which I plan to try-grow this coming June when rains should start after summer.

It was a lot of work today as I had also prepared the bed by sieving out the new bed. The soil had plenty of cement grits which had got mixed up when the earth was used for concrete roof centering for the house which was built more than a year ago.  I salvaged the good earth and also raised the entire garden area, using stone curbs that are not visible.

All those were done at a time when the other half of our house which is now owned by someone is being dismantled.