Spring and Birds Nests

[Iowa Travelers]

We have been back in Iowa from Fla for about two weeks. I have learned to watch for birds who seem to know when we arrive back here!

We have been watching a few birds hanging about the back part of the bus but have not found any evidence of them setting up residence until today. The wife saw a bird fly out of the exhaust pipe! I took a look, pulled out a couple hands full of straw etc. Fired up the engine and out came a pretty large quantity of straw, grass and other assorted trash.

I guess this one needs to go on the list of quick fixes etc Will be fabricating a removable screen insert for the exhaust pipe.

On a prior MH we had a full nest in the air intake of the generator. I had wondered for some time how "trash" was showing up around the sheet metal of the generator. would clean it out and find it again soon after running the gen. Found the entire air intake had been made into a nest. Something to be always on the lookout for.

Keep a watchful eye!!! Your mileage may vary

[Iowa Travelers]

We have been back in Iowa from Fla for about two weeks. I have learned to watch for birds who seem to know when we arrive back here!

We have been watching a few birds hanging about the back part of the bus but have not found any evidence of them setting up residence until today. The wife saw a bird fly out of the exhaust pipe! I took a look, pulled out a couple hands full of straw etc. Fired up the engine and out came a pretty large quantity of straw, grass and other assorted trash.

I guess this one needs to go on the list of quick fixes etc Will be fabricating a removable screen insert for the exhaust pipe.

On a prior MH we had a full nest in the air intake of the generator. I had wondered for some time how "trash" was showing up around the sheet metal of the generator. would clean it out and find it again soon after running the gen. Found the entire air intake had been made into a nest. Something to be always on the lookout for.

Keep a watchful eye!!! Your mileage may vary

["007"]

Now thats something new, mice have been my folly but the traps have done them in.

[Lorna]

Back when David was installing cabinets in SC, he had a well pipe for a bumper on his truck. The truck was on the go all the time (6 days a week). But it was parked on Sunday. One day was all it took for a brown wren to completely biuld a nest. We had spent all week pulling out the partial nests every morning. Then David had 1 weekend that the truck didn't move. Monday morning , he pulled out a fully built nest with eggs in it. He tossed them because he had touched the nest and figured that bird wouldn't set them. Brown Wrens & House Swallows are terrible pests. They will build a nest in just a few hours and will lay eggs within a day of completing the nest. Both birds are tolerant of people. You ought to try scraping a House Swallow's mud nest off the ledge of the house! I had 3 on our porch one summer.

[Mahlon]

Yep, just removed a bird's nest from the front area of the rig yesterday. What worries me is if a nest is built somewhere where it can catch fire; that would be BAD as they say.

Also killed & removed a paper wasp nest from under a slide-out topper.

Another thing: last year I fired up the a/c and noticed that the rear a/c pack ran kinda rough, stupid naive me didn't think anything of it & just let 'er run. When I came back a couple of hours later the thing was making an unholy racket. So I shut it down & removed the cover to investigate. Found a golf-ball-sized mud dauber nest on the condenser blower, which had thrown the whole thing out of balance, which trashed the fan motor shock mount bushings. Took almost a month to get replacements (most of that time spent explaining to Newmar what I needed). Now the rig has a full set of wasp screens, but I still have to come up with something for the a/c packs.

Enclosed storage is looking better 'n' better all the time.