Our New Neighbors

Recently, we’ve been seeing some small birds fluttering around our hanging plant baskets in the front of our house. We just assumed they were drinking the water that had collected in the baskets. Last night, I was getting one of the baskets down to water it and a bird flew out of the thing when I went to grab it! I carefully took it down, and found the reason why the birds have been hanging around:

To give you some scale, the eggs are slightly larger than jelly beans. I know it’s just a bird’s nest, but this thing amazes us! Just think how many trips those little birds had to make to get all those sticks and straws up into the basket, and then form it into an almost perfectly round nest. I guess they didn’t approve of the shoddy birdhouse I built in the backyard. Or maybe they were just looking for a better location with a nicer view. Anyhow, we’re excited to have some new neighbors.

We were careful not to touch the nest or the eggs, and after we gave the plant some water we cautiously hung the basket back up. I knew the parents were concerned about their new home, because one of them tried to fly back to the basket before I got it all the way hung up!

As it turns out, the nest is right in front of our bedroom window, so later in the spring I’m sure we’ll hear the tiny screeches of baby birds in the morning. I don’t think it will bother us, though, because we’ve got parakeets that love to sing and screech, and we can pretty much tune them out.

We’ll keep a careful eye on our new neighbors, and I’ll let you know when the birdsong starts up!