Trees are budding, this winter is almost over.

This is that time of the year when I want to plant the entire seed catalog! My whole winter salad garden perished in the last deep cold.  It had hug on for over 2 months of colder than usual temps for this part of central Texas, where we usually get very little winter.  The weather forecast for the coming two weeks would encourage me to wait a bit yet before planting again and declaring Spring. 
But someone among the wee folk is not waiting!  The urgency of a little Bewick wren gathering bits of mulch from my garden this morning stirred me to hunt my redware bird bottles. These are the familiar ones from Williamsburg.  Daughter Beth's husband Gary came to mount the bottles high up under the eaves of the house.  Under the eaves the sun cannot overheat the clay bottles and stifle the nestlings. 
There are some spots along the back yard fence that I would enjoy seeing the nests more, but those fence tops are highways for a surprising amount of wildlife. Through out the day the squirrels run back and forth and at dusk and after, the highway along the fence top is used by possums and raccoons.  I see tracks and small excavations in my garden from these nocturnal visitors. Who know how many cats might also climb there.  
Gary placed slender dowels in the prepared groves for perches and the small houses are empty and I hope inviting.  One of the bottles was a gift from a friend and the other a tag sale find. If the little male wren chooses to move into one I will post that here.  e