The Battle of Four Birds' Nests

Spring of 2018 will go down in Haney History as “The Battle of Four Bird’s Nests.”  Every year since we have lived here a robin has visited our gazebo in the Spring and built a nest tucked under the protection of its roof.  The kids love to be lifted up so they can see the pale bluish green eggs and watch the robin make forays for food once they have hatched, the nest full up of oversized yellow beaks reacting to any sound that might be their mother’s return.

If we are out in the yard she will sit on the fence, a tree branch, or the gazebo railing and chirp loudly at us as if to say “Go away!  Go away!  I have to feed my babies and you are making me nervous!”  Elias was four when it first happened and Anya has followed in his steps as a yearly witness to this phenomenon.

This year was no exception.  The robin came and built its nest in the same spot and laid its eggs.  But this year the nest was ransacked by some unknown animal and the nest unceremoniously dumped onto the floor of the gazebo.  This happened three different times as the robin stubbornly rebuilt its nest.  

At some point Anya saw some crows on the street in front of our house messing with something that she discovered were broken robin egg shells.  She was tearful and mad at the same time surmising the crows were the culprit, though they may have simply been opportunists.  Squirrels and chipmunks are active in our back yard, but the rabbits get a pass as they are not well known for their climbing skills.

Then a final nest was built in a different spot out on the cross beams of the gazebo and that one remained, but no eggs or baby birds have been forthcoming.  Today I gathered up the four aborted nests and added them to my lawn waste after mowing and clearing out some low hanging branches.  It was sad not having any cheeping baby birds this year.  Only wrecked nests and the realization that life doesn’t always go as we would like.