uninvited guests... not what you think!

Last June I bought an old school bus to do a bus conversion with.  This summer I plan to raise the roof giving me more room inside.

Anyway, when I bought the bus, it had been stripped down and prepped for painting, meaning all the trim and lights had been removed.  So, in order to drive it home legally and safely, we had to put things back together.  We didn't bother putting in the flashing schoolbus lights (the 8-ways as they're called, or wig-wags) as they weren't required for safe driving, and might have resulted in unwelcome law enforcement attention as many states require those be removed before operation of a non-schoolbus.

Well, the drive home found me driving thru a rainstorm, with the resulting dripping inside the bus (on me of course) because of the 4 nice holes in the front.  It was amusing, and didn't interfere in the operation of the bus, so I just stuck with it the last 100 miles or so.

This spring however has brought me some uninvited and unwelcome guests.  In the front set of holes, I have wasps trying to nest.  I'll have to deal with that soon.  In the rear set of holes, a pair of birds decided to build a nest!

Bear in mind that the holes open into a compartment with a door on it.  The compartment also has the lit window with the SCHOOL BUS label.  The birds built pretty much dead center of the compartment.

You can see the nest here.  You can see the cute little blue eggs here.

Now it seems I'll have to wait for the little critters to hatch and fledge before I can evict them.

I would've expected to find mice or squirrels or other rodents invading my bus, but I never expected birds.  Go figure.  ;D

jim

baadpuppy said:

I would've expected to find mice or squirrels or other rodents invading my bus, but I never expected birds.  Go figure.   ;D

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Nice pics!  Heck that spot is warm, dry, good natural lighting while still protected from the elements... who wouldn't want to live in there?  ;D

Baadpuppy,

If you Google Robin eggs you will get a complete run down on the life cycle of those  birds.  You will know almost to the day when they will be large enough to fly the Koop.  I had a similar situation (though the birds were not holding up any project) so I know  how much fun it is to watch them and found the  information on Google to  be fascnating and VERY accurate.  You'll know how much longer you can  put off your project and may have some time  for  another in between project or to go fishing!

Betty

Is the bus a "Blue Bird" by any chance?  Tee hee...

rjf7g said:

Is the bus a "Blue Bird" by any chance?  Tee hee...

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Alas, it is not a bluebird.  I originally wanted a bluebird, but the thomas is on par quality wise, except they use a gazillion screws for panels instead of a gazillion rivets.  ;D

However, the front is a deep rust color (primer colored), which could be argued to be a very dark red...  no beak though.  lol

jim

so today I went into the bus to tinker with the electrical stuff at the front.  I was bumping around, and during a pause, I hear "cheep cheep".

I thought to myself "how the bleep can I hear them from 40 feet away?".  So I climb over everything to get to the back for a peek, and I can't hear any cheeps.  Open the door and see 4 eggs, uncracked.  say what?  what is going on here?

I went back to the front and started looking around, and I found there is a gap about 2 to 4 inches between the inner skin and outer skin of the roof.  There is a vent in that area.  It looks like another family of birds is living in the roof.

I swear, it'll be months before I can get to some real work on the bus.  But at least I can keep working on the electrical without harming any little cheepers.

jim

baadpuppy said:

I swear, it'll be months before I can get to some real work on the bus.  But at least I can keep working on the electrical without harming any little cheepers.

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Jim,

It sounds like you should start plugging some of the other holes or you may never get your project off the ground. Who knows what will move in next.   

Just pray it's not black with a white stripe!  ;D

ArdraF

ArdraF said:

Just pray it's not black with a white stripe!  ;D

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Ardra,

I have a friend who at the time lived in Riverside County. He stored his motor home at his home and frequently went in and out of it for a few weeks doing some work on it. He often left the door open, even overnight. He decided to close it up for a couple of months as he did not intend to use it. When he opened it later there was a terrible smell in it. After a day or so he found that a pregnant skunk had gotten in and had given birth to a litter of at least three babies. Since the motor home was closed, with no source of water or food, and evidently quite hot during this storage period she and her babies died. He thinks there were three since they were so decayed he couldn't be sure and he didn't spend a lot of time going though the mess he found counting bodies. She had made a nest behind the overhead cabinets and that is where he found them after completely tearing out the overhead cabinets to gain access to the mess. He said it took almost a year to completely get rid of the odor and that cleaning the decaying bodies out was enough to turn ones stomach. That was probably an understatement.

Talk about uninvited guests.

Richard,

I was jesting, but your poor friend!  I'll bet he never leaves the door open again!!  And, if I were you, I wouldn't either.  If I were me, then methinks in the future I won't either. 

ArdraF

more pictures. 

click here.

the little ones aren't in the ceiling after all, but over the door in a space-wasting area.  They don't even have feathers yet.

jim

Jim, I guess your project is for the birds... just kiddin'..

  Love your enthusiasm. Wish more people today had the same.

carson FL

carson said:

Jim, I guess your project is for the birds... just kiddin'..

   Love your enthusiasm. Wish more people today had the same.

carson FL

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enthusiasm is about all that got me working on it today.  It hit 89 degrees, with a heat index of 100, and there was NOT enough breeze inside the bus. 

Still, I agree, the project is for the birds.  ;D

I'm hoping to maintain steady progress on prep work prior to having to evict my guests.  I'd rather not harm any of the creatures, although I think living in a metal box with no insulation and no shade in the heat around here isn't healthy.

jim

Well, the robins have hatched.

pic here

jim

Well, this story gets worse every day.

Yesterday, I noticed what at first I thought was dust on the ceiling panel above the door and the compartment where the birds are.  I was poking around a few minutes before I realized that the dust was moving.

Upon looking closer, I realized it was thousands of tiny mites.

I checked on the birds, and discovered that the ones in the front compartment were the source of the mites.  I also discovered there were at least 7 chicks in there.  They are feathered now, and seem to be capable of flying some.

Tonight, I attacked the interior mite infestation with sevin dust.  During the time I was doing that, a lot of the mites climbed on me.  I immediately jumped in the shower.

Still, there are a few of the little buggers in my apartment now. 

Word to the wise... if you find a nest with eggs in any domestic scene, put on some gloves and move it elsewhere and block access to the nest area ASAP.

Hopefully the sevin dust won't hurt the little starlings.  On the other hand, starlings like to kill blue birds, so perhaps it would've been best if they died young. 

hopefully the mites won't get all the way to the robins, or the birds I hope are robins.

jim

baadpuppy said:

Hopefully the sevin dust won't hurt the little starlings. 

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If you're lucky, it'll render them sterile.  We go through about 20# of bird seed a week, and I have learned to hate starlings, cowbirds, and Brewer's blackbirds.

Wow, all this time with no updates.  Where to catch up...

The starlings are long gone.  I evicted them forcefully (as in, I removed them from the bus and left them on the ground, where they managed to find their parents).

The robins in the back hatched safely, and grew up, and I guess moved on.  Unfortunately, I was busy and distracted and didn't get the holes closed before another batch of hatchlings was in there.  Even more unfortunately, the new batch was once again starlings.  Grrr.  I'm not a violent person, but I seriously considered killing those things.

On the plus side, while I was on vacation, they appear to have moved on.  I'll be closing those holes tomorrow after work.  Then I get the fun of pressure washing the interior to get rid of all the bird residue.

This whole episode has given me an appreciation for making sure to critter proof my conversion as much as is humanly possible.  Anything that remotely resembles a good home for a nest will have some kind of protection.

jim