Nest Update Part 1

This is the first of a two part post on what is happening with the "nest event" that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.  We've always had a lot of birds in our garden, but this year the birds decided to build their nests very close to the house.  We have a robin's nest right by our front door--a very busy place for baby birds--and nests on the gate posts that lead into our fenced vegetable garden.  So it has felt a bit like Wild Animal Kingdom around here.  And we have found that the process has been exciting, funny and tragic to watch.  In other words, it's life.

The nest by our front door has been the most fun to watch.  It is built in the branches of the evergreen clematis under our front porch, and it's high enough that we can walk underneath it.  The nest is also just three feet from the front door, and a similar distance from my desk window.  I have had a bird's eye view (pun intended!) of the action. 

I've watched the mama build the nest and I've watched her sit on the eggs.  And I had seen her bring worms to the nest, but had yet to hear her babies.  Now, given the "splat" that has graced our front step, I'm certain the babes have arrived.  I was prepared for the bird poo, and just figured we would be washing our front deck a lot--but only for the couple of weeks or so that it took to get the birds grown and out of the nest.  Never did I imagine such a thing as projectile pooping!  This picture is to give you an idea of what my window looks like right now.  Only it is much worse than it looks.  The deck below is just plain foul.  Having changed my share of diapers, I get the mess-potential, but the amount of bird poo is astounding!

On the other hand, it is has been both entertaining and educational to watch this mother bird go back and forth all day.  Today as I watched her bring her hard-won worms, I saw three little heads with mouths open pop up from the nest.  I've tried to get pictures of them but no luck thus far.  They are cute in the way that all baby creatures are cute, even though they are fairly featherless and their mouths are way too big for their bodies.  This mother robin has so far been successful in bringing three more robins into the world and even with the all of the bird poo on our deck and window, I feel privileged to be a part of it. 

However, I must warn you now that my next post will not have quite the happy update.  The girls do not think I should write about our tragedy, but I feel I must.  After all, nature has a dark, edgy side to it, and both the good and bad, the happy and tragic are necessary for the balance.  Stay tuned for Nest Update Part 2, "Do squirrels really eat baby birds?!?!?"