For the Birds

Apparently those birds that were keeping me up all night do work the night shift. Two years ago I had a lovely (cough) family of house wrens build a nest in my hanging impatiens plant. Last year I didn't have any hanging plants. This year I figured it was safe again, that my birdie "friends" would have moved on to greener pastures. I was wrong.

I first noticed their new nest about 2 days after I hung the plant up. I immediately removed the nest because there were no eggs in it. I can't remember if I checked again yesterday or Saturday, but the plant was clear of nests. This morning I checked again. I found not one, but *two* nests and one of those nests has three eggs in it! ACK!!!!! So, once again, I am not going to have a pretty hanging plant. I can't water it right with nests in it and I can't bring myself to take the nests out if there are eggs in there. I suppose I should be grateful. My neighbors have a quite large nest that was built on the frame of one of their bikes (hanging from the carport ceiling). There were *three* adult birds sitting in it when I showed it to Aaron earlier. Someone at their house won't be riding their bike for a while. My grandma once left a pair of my grandpa's jeans on the wash line to dry overnight. The next morning the house wrens had built a nest in the pocket of those jeans, so Grandma left them there until the eggs hatched. Apparently they are real opportunists. Kind of like squatters, I suppose.

So, all is not lost. Aaron loves birdies and he really enjoyed seeing the eggs. He's looking forward to them hatching and seeing baby birdies again. I did move the plant so it's not right next to the front door. The last thing I need is to get dive-bombed by a little freaking bird whenever I leave my house.