| Babies of Spring
by Left, a cat Every year it is the same thing, come spring, come the babies. The arbor next to the driveway harbors a pair of birds that insist on raising their young in a nest they have built in the vines that grow on said arbor. They are very polite birds, only squak if you get to close to the nest, and only dive bomb you if you try to peek inside. You can tell when it is nest time, there is a tremendous amount of coming and going, and the loving pair are so busy building and repairing their "summer" home that you have to wonder where in the world they get all the energy. But soon enough things settle down and Mom starts sitting in their newly made home. And if you peek in the nest when she is off eating you will see a little pile of eggs.
After a while she starts getting active again and if you can get near the nest, you will find it full of little fuzzy babies, but don't bump it while you are trying to take a picture or they will pop their little heads up in the air and the Mother will come on the run, that is when you will get the famous dive bomb if you don't get out of there fast.
We have watched this go on since the first Spring the arbor was put there, they come every year, build in the same spot, and heaven forbid if another bird should try to build a nest there, the dad tears the nest to shreds and tosses it out of the tree. Mom has put bird houses along the roof of the carport where the arbor is, but they don't seem to be interested in them. She put a shephards hook up near the nest to hold a bird feeder, but that just caused more problems, so she moved it to the back yard. Food close but not too close to the nest. It is a big job supervising the building of the nest and the raising of the babies, the window that looks out over the nest has a window perch where I stay to keep track on things. And then one day they are gone and my job is done for another year. I need a nap! |
