Don't get too enthusiastic with Spring cleanup

An important reminder from the birds - leave dried twigs and vines in the garden for nesting material.

Now that that the winter and spring rains have stopped the weather is warmer and dry.

This means that many of the birds you hear around you are nesting. And they need nesting materials.

While working in our back field yesterday, we noticed a bird suddenly fly to the top of the metal obelisk in this photo.

It plucked a couple of pieces of the dried vines and flew away with them in its beak.

These vines are from scarlet runner beans that I planted last year, mostly because I love the lushness of the leaves and bright red blossoms that attract hummingbirds and bees.

The dried stems in the top photo are from Sweet alyssum plants that we have in pots on the patio.

The photos are from yesterday.

Today I noticed that half of the dried stems are already gone.

The birds are definitely very busy.