Henning's Last Nesting Shelves

The Front Porch Courier
Stories From America’s Porches, Barns & Back Roads
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“Robins will never move into a birdhouse with a hole. Not once. And that’s all the stores sell.” — Why a retired Kentucky bridge inspector is letting go of his last nesting shelves at a special price, before the robins come back in March to nothing.

2 days ago | Dale Whitaker | Advertorial | 6 min read
Henning Ostrander on his porch, looking up at a robin nesting in one of his shelves
A robin on one of Henning Ostrander’s nesting shelves. He has 86 left.

The Nest on the Porch Light Was Never a Mistake

A robin nest with blue eggs squeezed onto a porch light, a broom leaning nearby
A robin nest on top of a porch light. Most of these get swept away within a week.

Every spring it happens on thousands of American porches. A robin starts a nest on top of the porch light. A mourning dove sits down on the front-door wreath. Mud shows up on the beam above the deck.

Most people grab a broom. The nest is messy, the bird is in the way, and nobody wants droppings on the welcome mat. A few days later the bird is back, building again in the same spot.

She is not being stubborn. She simply has nowhere else to go.

Four birds, one problem
  • American RobinBuilds a cup of mud and grass on a flat ledge. Will rebuild three times in one spring if the nest is removed.
  • Eastern PhoebeNests under bridges, porch roofs and eaves. Comes back to the same spot year after year.
  • Barn SwallowGlues a mud nest under beams and bridges. Its numbers have dropped by about a quarter since the 1960s.
  • Mourning DoveBuilds a nest of a few thin sticks. One strong wind can blow the eggs right out.

What these four birds have in common: none of them nests inside a box. They build in the open, on a flat ledge, with a roof above. And those ledges are disappearing.

Why the Birdhouse in Your Yard Stays Empty

Garden stores sell millions of birdhouses every year. Almost all of them look the same: a small closed box with a round hole in the front. That works for wrens and chickadees. For these four birds, it is useless.

Why store birdhouses fail these birds
  • The hole: A robin, phoebe, swallow or dove will never fly through a small hole into a dark box. Not once.
  • The closed walls: A sitting robin or dove wants to see out. If she can’t watch for danger, she won’t stay.
  • No ledge: These birds need a flat, open shelf to build on. A box gives them nothing to land on.
  • Built for looks: Many are painted, tiny and hung on a pole in full sun, where no open-nesting bird would ever build.

Where These Birds End Up Instead

A mourning dove nesting in a front-door wreath A robin nesting in a rain gutter A barn swallow at its mud nest on a porch light Two dove eggs on a wet porch floor after a storm
From readers’ porches: a dove in the door wreath, a robin in the gutter, swallows on the porch light, and what one spring storm left behind.

Every one of these spots is a gamble. A gutter fills with rain. A wreath gets opened with the door 20 times a day. A porch light gets hot. For the bird, it is the best of bad choices.

The Man Who Saw Where the Ledges Went

Henning Ostrander knows exactly where these birds used to live. For 34 years, from 1980 to 2014, he inspected bridges for the state of Kentucky. He climbed under more than 1,100 of them with a flashlight and a hammer.

Under almost every old bridge, he found birds. Phoebes on the steel beams. A long row of swallow nests under the deck. Robins on the ledges near the bank.

“Every bridge had a tenant,” he says. “Some of those nests were older than my truck.”

Then the old bridges started coming down. The new ones were smooth concrete. Safer for cars, but flat underneath. No beams, no ledges, nowhere for a nest to sit.

The Spring the Phoebes Came Back to Nothing

An Eastern Phoebe on a twig by the creek, the new smooth concrete bridge behind it
A phoebe on the creek bank. Under the smooth new bridge behind it, there is nowhere left to build.

One pair of Eastern Phoebes nested on the same beam under the Lick Creek bridge for 11 springs in a row. Henning checked on them every April. In 2009 the old bridge was replaced.

The next spring he drove out to see. The phoebes were back. For days they flew back and forth under the new bridge, looking for their beam.

“The new bridge was beautiful. And there was nothing for them to land on.”— Henning Ostrander

That same week he built a simple wooden shelf and screwed it under the eave of a barn near the creek. The phoebes moved in within seven days.

Since then he has built more than 2,000 of them in his garage. Almost all of them he gave away, to neighbors, churches, farms and the fire station.

A Shelf That Gives Them Back What They Lost

An Eastern Phoebe nesting in an open-front shelf under a barn eave
No hole, no door, no front wall. Just a ledge with a roof.

Henning’s shelf looks almost too simple. That is the point. It copies the one thing these birds have lost: a dry, open ledge up high.

What makes Henning’s shelf different
  • “The Bridge-Beam Ledge”: An open front and a flat floor, just like the old bridge beams. The sitting bird can see out, so she feels safe enough to stay.
  • “The Forward Roof”: The roof sticks out past the front, so rain runs off in front of the nest instead of into it.
  • “The Two-Rail Cradle”: Two low rails across the front hold the nest in place. Dove eggs don’t roll out, and wind can’t push the nest off. Small gaps let rain drain away.
  • “The One-Screw Hang”: One hole in the back, one screw. Under an eave, a porch roof, a shed or a tree. Up in five minutes.

“A robin doesn’t want your porch light,” Henning says. “Give her something better a few feet away, and she’ll take it.”

A wildlife expert agrees: “Robins, phoebes and doves are open nesters. Closed birdhouses don’t help them at all. A covered shelf placed under an eave is one of the few things that really does.” — Linda Haskell, wildlife rehabilitator, Bowling Green, KY

Three Steps, One Afternoon

  • 1Pick a spotUnder an eave or porch roof, at least 6 feet high, out of the afternoon sun.
  • 2One screwHang it through the hole in the back wall. No tools beyond a screwdriver.
  • 3Add the starterPut a little of the included nesting mix inside. The birds do the rest.

The Robin Above His Own Front Door

Henning sanding a roof board in his garage workshop, the old bridge timber on the shelf above
A piece of the old Lick Creek bridge, with the phoebes’ nest still on it.

Henning’s workshop is his old two-car garage outside Munfordville, Kentucky. On the shelf above his bench sits a short, dark piece of timber. On top of it is a small cup of mud and moss.

It is a piece of the old Lick Creek beam. The road crew let him keep it. The nest on it is the one the phoebes used for 11 years.

Through the window you can see his porch. Above the porch light hangs one of his shelves. A robin has raised her young in it every spring since 2015. Before that, his wife Ruth used to sweep a robin nest off that same light every year.

Why the Last 86 Shelves Are Leaving the Garage

Henning assembling a nesting shelf with a cordless drill in his garage workshop
Henning screws the front rails onto one of his last shelves. He can still build them. He just can’t hang them anymore.

Thirty-four years of swinging a hammer above his head have worn out Henning’s right shoulder. He has surgery in January. After that, there will be no more building.

He can still cut the boards. What he can’t do anymore is the part he always loved: climbing the ladder and hanging a shelf up under somebody’s roof.

“A shelf for these birds has to go up high,” he says quietly. “Seeing the first bird land on it, that was always the best part.”

86

shelves are left in Henning’s garage. When they are gone, the workshop closes for good.

He Could Have Asked $70. He Said No.

A gift shop in Bowling Green offered Henning $70 a shelf. He turned it down.

“I don’t want them sitting in a store,” he says. “I want them on porches. Every robin on a porch light, every dove on a wreath, I want them to have somewhere better to go.”

So he kept the price low on purpose, low enough that people hang two. Every shelf ships with a small bag of nesting starter: jute, straw and cotton, so the first bird has something to begin with.

Henning’s farewell price
$79.95Regular price
$42.99While the last 86 last

Robins and phoebes start looking for a nest spot in early March. A shelf hung this winter has time to weather and lose its new-wood smell before they arrive.

While they last — only 86 shelves left:

See the Last Shelves

Check availability →

What Porch Owners Say About Henning’s Shelves

  • ★★★★★

    “For three years I swept a robin nest off my porch light and felt terrible every time. I hung Henning’s shelf two feet away in February. She built in it on the first try.”

    – Brenda T., Lexington, KY
  • ★★★★★

    “Our doves used to nest in the gutter and lose their eggs in every storm. This spring they raised two broods on the shelf under our carport. Not one egg lost.”

    – Gary and Ellen M., Franklin, TN
  • ★★★★★

    “Simple, solid and it smells like real cedar. I bought two for my porch and one for my daughter. Reading about the phoebes under that bridge got me.”

    – Margaret H., Evansville, IN

Questions Readers Keep Asking

Where can I buy Henning’s shelves?

Only through this page. His daughter-in-law Carla set up the small online shop after 40 shelves sold out at a church yard sale before ten in the morning. You won’t find them on Amazon or in any store.

How long will they be available?

Only while the last 86 last. After his shoulder surgery in January, Henning won’t build any more.

What if no bird moves in?

You have 30 days to return it, no questions asked. One short email is all it takes.

Next spring, the robins will look for a ledge again. Give them a better one than your porch light.

Check Availability

Limited quantity · only 86 left

  • ★★★★★

    “Phoebes came back to our deck for the first time in years. They built on the shelf in April and came back again in August for a second round.”

    – Ronald P., Bowling Green, KY
  • ★★★★★

    “I’m 74 and don’t do ladders anymore. My grandson put it up with one screw in about five minutes. Best gift I’ve given myself in a long time.”

    – Dorothy W., Cincinnati, OH
  • ★★★★★

    “We have an old barn and the swallows had lost their spot when we redid the roof. Two of Henning’s shelves under the eaves, and they were back by May.”

    – Linda and Ray S., Columbia, MO