Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Two Silent Evictions

Well, I suppose I only say there were two silent evictions because I didn't see or hear them. For all I know they happened while we were at work/school and there was a stupendously epic calamity that would shake us to our very core.

We have a small overhang over our front door, kind of like a porch with columns. On the inside, the corner columns are flush with the street side, so that means there's a bit of exposed column on the house side. For three years running, birds have set up nests in the two corner columns. We've always enjoyed watching them with their babies. We always thought it odd that they came back to the old nests time and time again.

Until now.

Apparently it's time to lay eggs again and the new family wasn't too stoked about the floor plan. We picked up this nest and showed it to the boy. He loved how tightly it was woven and how sturdy it was.

Then, we saw this:
This is the nest from the other column. See that white fluff? It's fur from our old dog Vladimir who died last year. Those birds would dive bomb him for the fur and we'd always throw the fur in the yard after brushing him. Seems like we're always finding something around to remind us of him. This was a special treat as when the nest was on the column, there was no telling it was stuffed with Vladimir fur.

Whomever the new tenent is didn't waste any time. He's already picked out his carpet and cabinetry and gone out to fetch the paint.
This year, the girl will be old enough to understand watching the birds feed the babies. They always put on quite a racket.
The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

6 comments:

  1. How cool is that. We also have new neighbors in the morning glory.
    Took them about three days to build their new home. When noone was home I went and check it out. Small but very well built. New tenants moved in today. I have also seen them picking dog hair off the patio. I hope to get some photos.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I had to cut down our old perennial Akebia vines on our 15 foot tall arbor this year to make way for our new Hop Yard - that's where my resident dive bombing Mockingbirds have lived for the past 5 years! Now they just sit on top of the arbor squawking at me through the back door, I am afraid of them more than ever this year, LOL! They will be fine once those hop rhizomes start taking off.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love the reminders. They're so fast and so clever.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Awww...how sweet! We never have nesting birds around here (that I can see at least - I'm sure they're all over the back yard). But we always get the extra dog-hair-fluff and toss it in the backyard for the birds building nests too!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I brushed both dogs and both cats on the back deck last weekend and tossed the hair out for the birds though it's been so windy this week I'm sure it's long gone by now. I even had to take down the bird feeder yesterday to keep it in one piece.

    We have some little birds that nest under the deck. Last year I found the old nest on the patio but they built a new one. Good thing my animals aren't great hunters :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a sweet reminder to be left :) Take pics of the new residents so we can id!

    ReplyDelete