Momma on the job |
So now I know that momma bird is doing what she is supposed to be doing. But here's the hitch. She picked the wrong yard to raise her young. It would be much better to have nested in a tree in the property behind the fence at the back of our property. Over that fence is a convalescent home behind which is a parking lot and an open area with a few walking paths where virtually no one wanders. The best thing about it is that the convalescent home has no cats. We, on the other hand, have two birders, mousers, squirrelers that act without remorse when around feathered things--without regard for the innocence of youth.
I'll be watching closely and hope to be able to tell you that the beautiful blue eggs have produced two healthy chicks. Guarded optimism is the order of the day.
Stay tuned.
A few years ago, I cleaned out a bunch of garlic that had taken over a flower bed in my back yard, and left a heap sitting in the back yard, intending to move it to the green waste can. Not too much later, I discovered a funny sight... a neatly woven nest made entirely of dried garlic greens, complete with little dangling garlic bulbs! Soon the mother robin laid her eggs, and I believe they all hatched successfully. Who knows, mhaybe the garlic scent kept the cats away. My family made a lot of jokes about the pre-seasoned poultry dishes I would be making.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I should try a little garlic poultice bag that I can hang from the branch. I might have to move the carefully-selected position of my chair, however, lest my cats shun me, too.
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