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This year our garden is just overstuffed with birds. They are nesting everywhere! Every birdhouse is filled to capacity, we have hummingbirds in the clumping birch by the street, robins in the crabapple, and some obnoxious creature in the apple tree out front that screeches in an almost human way every morning so loudly the entire household is up. In the photos you can see a nest in the living wreath that hangs on my garage doors. You can’t even go in or out of the garage without almost peeing your pants when the parents startle you bolting from the nest when you come near.

Also , see the two red chairs that sit on the front porch? There is a nest in the basket hanging there making the porch a danger zone to all humans.

 The dwarf Alberta Spruce also has  a nest, you can see one of the parents sticking their head out of the bush , and also the mess they made when they were dragging stuff in there to build a home. Even the birds expect me to clean up after them.

Speaking of clean up, when Bill came home last night the entire driveway was covered in, guess what??? A layer of bird poop. Must have been either a flock, or one who made a bad dinner decision! He actually had to hose it down it was so bad.

At the end of last summer I cut off the top four feet of an arborvitae (don’t ask) and watched in horror as a nest full of baby birds hit the asphalt. Yeee-ikes!!! I leaned the tree top against the house and carefully picked up all the babies and put them back in.  It took the parents a whole day to find where the nest went ….see photo of confused looking bird peering down at where nest used to be… but they did finally. For three days the tree kept toppling over in the wind and I would patiently put all the babies back. On day three I had to fish one of them out of Baby Dear’s mouth, that is when I got the bright idea to TIE the tree top to the porch railing, and there they lived until all the babies flew away. Guess it is an old wives tale that if you tough the nestlings the parents won’t come back.

Kind of wishing I had listened to bird call lady I laughed at at the garden club program meeting. I would love to know what that god-awful avian mess-up  is in the apple tree , he needs to be silenced or relocated . I can deal with the poop and the array of seedling erupting everywhere the poo lands, the feathers and dead bodies from the mating fights, the clean-up of the birdhouses filled with those weird little armies of  teeny  bugs that apparently co-habitate with the birds. It is all in exchange for the lovely songs, funny antics to watch, and bug eating they provide, but I AM NOT a morning person, so I draw the line at the screeching. I wish I knew how to make him move over to the neighbors.

Have a great weekend

Cheryl

p.s. just a reminder  to login so you can get email updates of postings

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