I love birds....I love everything about them.....their fluffy feathers and beautiful colors, the fact that they can fly without an airplane :), their ability to withstand the elements, and that they build nests in the most unexpected of places. I remember one particular set of Robins who built their nest at the very end of a branch in an Elm tree in the backyard of our place in Colorado. The nest was built so far out on a limb :) that I considered those Robins rook-y nest builders, they didn't seem to know what they were doing; for when the winds blew, the branch of the tree would sway from side to side and the little baby Robin that was sitting cozily in the nest would wind up being dumped onto the ground. Mitch was my resident "pick-up-the-little-Robin-and-place-it-back-into-it's-nest-guy." I still have a sweet and funny memory of Mitch standing on the very top of our small step ladder, trying to place the little Robin back into it's nest while the mommy and daddy Robin flew and dove about his head....and my cat, Cleo, was howling from the screened porch where I had locked her up! Needless to say Mitch would get the little bugger back into the nest, and all would be well........until the wind blew again!
When we moved from Colorado, I knew that I would miss watching a pair of Mourning Doves that would build their nest in the Fir tree out front. I used to watch the daddy Dove fly from the tree to the ground and return again with a twig or moss in it's beak. He would then walk into the interior of the Fir tree and leave the bit of nest-building material in it, and pop back out a few minutes later to fly away to search for more. Did you know that Doves mate for life, and that they will return each year to the same place to build their nest and to lay their eggs? Knowing this made my heart sad as I said Good-Bye to my little house in Colorado. I sometimes wonder if the pair of Doves is still coming back to that Fir tree.
I have a bird feeder in the lone Maple tree in my front yard. I love to hear the birds singing in the morning and in the late afternoon as they come for their meal of seeds and nuts. Well, at least some seeds......I stopped buying the mix with sunflower seeds in it, after I discovered that the birds would grab a seed and take it to eat it on my front porch! Even though I love birds, I don't particularly love what comes out of their back ends!! So.......no more Take-Out for these birds!
I think that my favorite thing about birds is their call, their sweet song. There are a variety of Common Finches that visit my feeder and an occasional Chickadee, and their calls are sweet to hear. One morning, a month or so ago, as I was sitting having my coffee, I heard the sound of a Mourning Dove. I was so excited to find that I had attracted some to my feeder, since I had been missing my Colorado pair of Doves! I was hoping that as our trees grew that this pair would keep coming back, and would one day build their nest in our tree, but it looked like that wasn't to be, since I hadn't seen them for a bit.....but, the other day, I heard their call, and there they were, sitting on the back fence. Maybe they will stay for a while this time, build a nest and settle down, maybe they will feel as much at home here as I do.
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