Spring Birds

I just sat down to write another post and noticed that the birds are back.  The upstairs living room in our house has a cathedral ceiling with windows affording us a nice view of the mountains.  A single wooden beam runs the length of the living room supporting the roof.  The beam extends beyond the front set of windows outside the walls of our house.  Where the beam and the roof soffit meet there is a little gap. 

For many years after we moved in birds would appear in the Spring work their way through the gap between the beam and the soffit and nest in our ceiling.  At least that is what I surmised from observing the birds and listenting to the sound of birds coming from the ceiling. 

Eventually I tired of hearing the birds scrabbling around every year and concluded that it probably was not good for the structure to have them in there year after year.  So about 7 or 8 years ago I borrowed a very tall ladder from a neighbor, bought some metal screening and closed off the gap between the beam and the soffit.  The birds can no longer access our roof to nest, yet they return every year to make the attempt.

I guess that with birds as with humans old habits die hard.