when we came home from vacation earlier this month, we found a bird had made her nest in the little window above our front door. ahh how cute! except she wouldn't let us use our front door. any time we would open the front door she would squawk and fly away, scattering nest bits and feathers everywhere. any fool who tried to come to our house using the sidewalk towards our front door would be scared off when she dive-bombed them. our sidewalk and front entry became her territory. we knew she wouldn't stay there forever, so we let her have it temporarily.
she was fun to watch. from our living room couch we had a perfect view of her little bird head in the window. she would turn and look our direction if there was sudden movement or a change in lighting. we checked on her and talked about her all day every day. "what's the bird doing now?" i'd ask the kids, and they would run to the front door to look up and see. "is our bird still there?" hubby would ask when he called from work. some days she would fly away for a little while, and then come back with a few extra twigs for her nest. housekeeping. nesting. i felt like the bird and i understood eachother.
we were curious. while she was away getting new twigs one day, DaddyHall went outside, reached his iPhone up in the window and took a picture of her nest.
sure enough, two little speckled eggs sat nestled in the woven branches. ahhh how cute!
days passed slower with the anticipation of baby birds. if it went by slow for us, i can only imagine how Mama Bird felt. except, since Bubba was born 10 days past his due date, i actually could imagine how she felt.
one day, i was headed upstairs [the third step had a great view of Mama Bird] and i checked on her. she was busy, her head kept bobbing up and down in and out of view. i stopped to watch, and all of a sudden, two tiny bird heads popped up in sight! it was the sweetest moment! i was so excited! i yelled for DaddyHall and the kids, "COME SEE THE BABY BIRDS!" which startled Mama Bird, so she sat on her babies hiding them from us. it wasn't until the next day that she brought them out again. this time i whispered "come see the baby birds!"
we watched her feed them. she would fly away, come back and feed them from her beak into theirs. it looked like they were kissing, but every once in a while we could see food (worms and bugs, i'm assuming) passing between their mouths. by the way, i balanced on a wobbly stool, as quiet as i could be, with the flash off, to get these pictures.
and then one day curiosity got the best of me and i snuck out to get this picture of the babies while Mama Bird was away...
Mama Bird made her home above our front door for about 6 weeks and about 6 days after the babies were born, the three of them flew away. we carefully removed the empty nest and swept up the mess of sticks on our front porch. there is nothing to see in the window above our front door.
every once in a while we'll see a bird perched on our rooftop, or we'll hear a familiar squawk, and we'll look at eachother, shrug and smile.
