A Word On Nesting

It seems that “nesting” has been a theme since I moved into this
little house.  In the weeping cherry off the back patio sits a nest from
a previous year, empty, yet longing somehow to be filled again.  I
still look at this nest expecting little hungry chirping heads to pop up
and greet me on my way to the shed.  

Then there is the case of the bluebirds.  When I moved in I noticed
a happy little couple flitting in and out of the house, then things
were silent for a while until I noticed a female tending to the place
again.  There was the incident when I was mowing and noticed the top had
been taken off the house.  I have no idea how old this bluebird house
is, but the wood is rotted with some lichens growing on it, and in spite
of tapping the nails back in, a creature managed to tear the roof off,
stealing three eggs and leaving a hole in the one that was left.  

I was
so heartbroken to see this, so upset by the course of nature that
sometimes means destruction and death for another creature.  I imagine
the mother bluebird must have been most distressed to come home and find
her eggs stolen, her home ransacked.  Mom surprised me the other day
when I came home and found a beautiful new bluebird house sitting on the
kitchen counter.  I am thrilled!  I shall take the old one down and put
this shiny new one in its place.  It usually takes a year or two for a
bluebird house to “cure” to where the birds will use it.  Hopefully with
the new one being in the same place as the old one, it won’t take that
long for new residents to show up.

An interesting tidbit about bluebird houses – you need to purchase
one that is Audabon certified.  Bluebirds use holes made by woodpeckers
or manmade houses since they do not have the ability to dig out their
own shelters.  Wrens and sparrows are often pests because unless you
purchase a house that is sparrow deterrent, you will soon find the wrong
species of bird in your house.  Hopefully, the new house will do the
trick and many generations of pretty bluebirds will be hatched there.

The great surprise of the season has been the House Finch nest in
the hanging basket on the front porch.  What a gorgeous little nest in
such a precarious place!  I now water the basket with a small watering
can from the back due to the nest being in the front nestled in among
the asparagus fern and verbena.  The mother finch has probably had
multiple heart attacks as she watches me take her home down, examine it,
and then re-hang it for her use.  The eggs were so tiny and very white,
and the little birds that hatched seem like one-inch little wisps of
downy magic.  Their little expectant heads can’t be larger than a pencil
eraser, and their bodies are so frail.  It’s amazing to me that they
survive, and yet each day I watch them grow slightly bigger and
stronger.  

 

All of this nesting has come at such an appropriate time since I
feel like I have been struggling to build a nest of my own out of the
sticks I moved into.  There has been much tearing down and rebuilding,
much fussing over what goes where, much frustration trying to get things
just so in order for a room to “feel right” to me.  It has been a task
and an adventure, and I often have to remind myself that I’ve only been
in the house for a month and a half.  The impatient part of me that
wants things ready and perfect in a snap has had to back down and
breathe as I watch Rob and dad work so hard to fix plumbing, readjust
walls and spaces, and exclaim over shoddy workmanship by the previous
owners.  The next thing to be done is fixing the electrical wiring that
is a hazard throughout the house.  With the pretty pricetag of around
$2K, it is yet another improvement I must swallow and move forward
with.  In mid July my own little nest will become safer as breaker boxes
are rewired and outside frayed wires are contained.  All in due
time….all in due time.