April 21st, 2015: Bee Waterer

[glatt]

I had no idea. I like it.

There have been a couple big fat bumblebees hovering in the same general spot by the side of my house when I get home in the late afternoon over the last several days. I can't figure out why. I don't see any blossoms near there, and I don't think they are carpenter bees looking for a place to chew into my house.

There is a porch roof with dark asphalt shingles pointed directly at the sun that's low in the sky. Maybe it's warm there and they like that.

And interestingly enough, I watched (and video recorded) two birds mating on a branch in the maple tree right there too. They were also building a nest in our covered gutters at the edge of that roof. There was a one inch gap at the end of the gutters they were using to get in there. I got the ladder out and pulled about a basketball sized clump of nesting material out of the gutter before I closed that gap with hardware cloth. Birds are cool, but the gutters have a job to do and they can't do it when they are stuffed with straw. I hope they build a nest somewhere else before those eggs are ready to be laid. What's the gestation period for a bird to form an egg? They had sex on Friday.