It all begins innocently enough, the stuff that fairy tails are made of really. Birds take wing to the rolling hills of Vermont in hopes of finding that perfect match by calling out, "Cheerily, cheer up, Cheerily, cheer up" loosely translated as I am here my love, be happy! They become lovebirds if you will, and together they feather their nest in which to raise a brood or three. Young children everywhere are lifted up by adults so that they may peer in with wide eyes to count a clutch of Robin blue eggs and witness first hand the miracle of the birds and the bees - sigh.
I used to hand write an annual letter in the spring to Wayne's Gram Thelma, first from Florida and then from South Carolina in order to announce to her that the Robins had begun to make their way up to Bellows Falls. After Gram's passing, a few of these letters were returned to me, reminding me of the hope that the first robin's of spring bring to all generations- double sigh.
And so it was with eternal optimism that I requested of Wayne that he install our brand new outdoor carpet into our newly renovated gazebo. Wayne and I accomplished two big projects last summer, one was to scrub and paint our deck and the other was to scrape, prime, paint and finally put a new roof on the gazebo. Unbeknownst to me, one woman's gazebo is another's birdhouse.
At first I assumed it was an innocent miscalculation and with a little redirection things would work out.
I removed the strands from the gazebo, thinking that the Robins would get the hint and move to the nearby tree. This only resulted in them becoming more determined.
Not to worry, they only thought that I meant move it over to above the door. I gave them a little more encouragement and they returned the favor in kind.
Wayne called from the road as I was drilling a pilot hole in a ceiling beam to install a hook. Though I had him on speaker, I was much too flustered to carry on a conversation about my plan of action. I retrieved my colander from the shed that I use to wash garden vegetables before bringing them into the house to wash again. I hung it from the hook and stuffed it with the grass I had gathered from the...well everywhere.
They began to bring in what appeared to be shredded lawn furniture, produce nets and strands of tarp. I'm not sure where they found them, but they even brought in cassette tape! The worst of it however, was when they deposited beak full after beak full of mud on the railings which promptly cemented onto and removed some of the fresh paint.
Clearly an eviction notice was in order and as any observer can plainly see, these birds had options. Even so, I lugged out the old wood step ladder, placed the colander in the tree and filled it with their treasures.
At last a compromise was struck, and all that I needed to do was sacrifice my rose bush.
Well this went on for some time and to the point that I thought that the poor creatures would die of nest building exhaustion. I waffled between wanting to remove their haystack, sympathy, and being curious about how all of this would end.
It was about this stage in nesting, when my daughter Helen dropped in to surprise me on Mother's day. Now Helen works in shore and seabird conservation and so I frequently use her as a resource for posts about birds. It was when Helen informed me that she had "never seen anything like it", took a picture and remarked, "It doesn't even have a nest cup yet" that I finally understood the breadth of revenge exacted by these angry birds. If revenge wasn't the reason for this Picasso in progress, than I honestly didn't know what the hay was going on here!
Hay is right, for while these birdbrains were still gleefully building, I came upon this broken robin's egg with a partially developed chick inside (sensibly) beneath a Horse Chestnut tree. While I took several pictures of the eggs contents, I won't post those here.
The discovery of the spoiled egg, was soon followed by the most beautiful pictures of perfectly rounded and cupped nests with bright blue eggs inside of them as posted by joyful birders on the Vernon VT Facebook group page. When the chicks arrived one by one, I cringed and graciously issued heart emojis to each and every one of those pictures. Tick tock, clearly either the rosebush robins or myself had been driven cuckoo!
Fearing the former, I went in search of more traditional feathered friends and noticed a pair of Eastern Phoebes perching near our woodshed and making frequent flights into it. You can imagine my elation at discovering a perfectly dainty and cupped nest made from moss and mud in the rafters!
The Phoebe nest, being such a conforming and beautiful nest, I reasoned that I could blindly snap a picture and of course I could expect perfect results worthy of posting in the Vernon Facebook group.
"Helen, do you think it would be okay if I removed the cowbird eggs from the phoebe's nest?" I argued my case to no avail when she informed me that Cowbirds are native birds and it would against the
Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
Brown Headed Cowbirds are brood parasites. They go around sneaking their speckled eggs into other birds nests, sometimes destroying or removing eggs already in the nest. Because they don't have to build nests or care for growing chicks, they can spend their free time laying more eggs. The rightful owners of the nest must feed (in this nest) two additional chicks which hatch sooner than their own chicks do. The poor nestmates must then compete for food with the much larger, faster growing cowbird chicks.* So much for perfect.
As I write this blog, the robin's nest measures in at 18x15x20 with no end to construction in sight. So while my neighbors share chick pics, I arguably host the largest birdhouse in town. I already have a plan for next spring's nesting season. I'm going to locate the gazebo screens that I had Wayne take down when we first moved in and have him reinstall them (sigh).
Oh, and to answer that age old question, "Is nest building innate or learned?" Even though I posted further reading arguing both sides, based on the mess in my gazebo, I'm guessing that the answer is learned. - Norma Manning
Further reading:
I wish I had seen that! What a project I bet it will be beautiful when it is done.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic read! I wonder how big that nest will be when they finally finish :)
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