Wildlife Preserve

Following in the footsteps of my great blogger role model, Mindi Wood (check out MindiandIan.blogspot.com) I apparently don’t blog in April either. In April I hauled all my junk two blocks down the street to my new house. I am elated about my new place, and am happy to be technically “moved in”. I thought I might blog about it, but find I can’t. I don’t want to think about it – or talk about it – or write about it. I kind of just hope to live in this beautiful house until I pass from this life. I don’t want even to say the “M” word ever again!

Instead, I will write about our new nature preserve here. When the inspector was going over the report before we closed on the property, he mentioned – almost off-handedly – that he had found a nest in the attic. A nest? A bees nest? What kind of nest? He hesitantly told us that it wasn’t a hive – but he didn’t know exactly what it was. We pressed him for more details. A bird’s nest? He continued to be evasive. Not exactly a bird’s nest, he thought. He couldn’t gage how old the next might be – might not actually be active. He finally reported that it was rather large. Large? Like how large? “Oh, I’d say, fairly good-sized.” ?????? “Um, maybe about 3 feet high.”

Three feet high!?!?!?!?! I nearly fell off of my chair! A 3 foot tall nest of unidentified inhabitants was in the attic of the house I was buying?!? Needless to say, we wrote an addendum to the sale agreement stating that the nest needed to be removed, point of entry determined and sealed.

Later I looked on line – trying to find pictures of a squirrel’s nest or raccoon’s nest. What makes a three foot high nest of twigs and dead grass?

Starlings!!! Starlings will build huge nests and return year after year. I’d prefer a huge bird nest in my attic to a raccoon nest any day – but was still happy that the sellers had the thing removed.

Since moving in, we can hear baby birds chirping in the vent of the bathroom fan. This is actually in an addition – different part of the roof. These are some really verbose little chirpers! (They might be Davises!) Then I saw the momma bird fly into the vent on the front of the roof. We’ve been living here for 3 weeks and continue to hear the chirps – but lately, I’ve heard a lot of noise – like we had some sort of fowl grand central station in our fan vent – or maybe there was an entire bird apartment complex in there.

Today, I saw the hugest baby birds sitting in the bush outside the sunroom. They were 2 feet from the window and oblivious to my staring at them. They would hop, but couldn’t fly. Oddly enough, despite his enormous size, one little fellow had his baby feathers still sticking off of his head – like a 40 year old man in a baby bonnet.

A friend reported that while the babies weren’t ready to fly yet, the parents would continue to hover in the area and would feed them until they can take off. (Kind of like parents supporting adult children who live in the basement and play video games all day.) When John came home, he had to walk around to the back door so he didn't disturb the two birdies sitting on the front porch.

While I don’t really want them nesting in my attic – or bathroom vent, I don’t really want a neighbor’s cat to get them before they learn to fly, either. Good luck, little birdies! Bravo, Momma Birdie, for a job well done. And next year, you’ll be house hunting because we are going to put a wire mesh over our fan vent! I respect wildlife – and expect them to respect me – and my property!

Now about the mouse poison the previous owners left in the basement – what’s that all about anyway?