Empty Nest*

Last week a robin built a beautiful nest in our backyard. She was very expedient and very determined. One day, the nest wasn't there and the next - there it was. Unfortunately, she built it at the top of Ben's play set where his telescope sits.

I felt guilty about it but the husband insisted that we needed to move it before she filled it with eggs. He was concerned that once she had eggs to sit on, she would not feel very warm and fuzzy about sharing her space with my rambunctious toddler. So, I climbed up in to the playhouse and very, very carefully removed the nest out of it's resting spot (she had it wedged in VERY securely). The whole time she was watching me from the fence. I felt so awful for her and I kept trying to explain it to her. "You see, my son plays up here, Mrs. Robin. You don't want to lay your eggs here. It's not safe." I don't think she understood me. The nest was so cute and perfect and so obviously very lovingly constructed, I couldn't stand to throw it away. So, I persuaded my husband to move the nest to the wooden bird feeder at the other side of the yard. "See, we are just going to move it to a safer place. It's still in one piece, you can still sit on it!"

Unfortunately, I don't think she believed me because the nest is still sitting unused in our bird house. I think we must have contaminated it with our dirty human scent. She still hops around the yard and sits on our fence but has yet to build another nest or use the relocated version. I am still hopeful that the more time that passes with no one touching it, the sooner she will see that it is a safe place to reside. (I am also a tiny bit paranoid that she and her bird friends are plotting against us and we are going to get "bombed" when we try to play in the yard).

* I bet you thought this was some clever title referring to my baby(ies) growing up or my pregnant need to clean the house, didn't you? Nope, just a bird story.