The Nest

 Last summer we watched three bird nests being built, inhabited, sheltering young, and finally abandoned. The swallows built a nest at the top of a pillar on the front porch years ago. They, or their progeny, have used it regularly since then, always building it up a little bit higher before laying their eggs. Then, a year and a half ago, some phoebe's borrowed the nest. This last summer the swallows got it back.

Swallows are not very shy. They eat insects and swoop with their perfectly forked tail feathers, catching mosquitos out of the air. How do they even see them while flying? It was a bit hazardous to sit near the nest when the parents were building it, because they flew low right over us as we enjoyed being on the porch. It was more hazardous when they were feeding their ravenous young. And when the young got big enough to sit on the edge of the nest, it was best to sit a good distance away. But we enjoyed a mostly mosquito free porch this year.

Swallows like building their nests inside a structure or under a roof. They don't get much weather impact at all, compared to other birds.

A pair of robins built a nest in our crabapple tree. They are more private, so we saw them fly into and out from the tree a lot, but when we got anywhere near, they left. We mostly left them alone so they could raise their young in peace, but I did find a tiny gap in the branches through which I could see the nest if I stood in just the right place. That nest was built at the spot where one of the larger branches joined the trunk. It would get a little weather, but mostly it was pretty stable.

The third nest we watched was built by a pair of Baltimore orioles. In spring, I hear them before I see them because they sing their distinctive melody so often in the weeks leading up to nesting season. They build their hanging swinging nests at the farthest part of the branch where every breeze swings it and the Kansas winds prove the strength of their building skills. 

Today Chuck found the oriole nest on the ground. The thin twigs which anchored it were no match for today's wind. Maybe they are more brittle now that it is late fall.

As small as those twigs are, it's surprising that nest lasted this long. I think last summer was at least the second year for this particular nest.

But look at how it is woven, and what it is made from.

There is a little bit of cotton string in there but nearly all of it is some form of nylon or plastic. There is a lot of a plastic netting from the wrapping of round bales. There is some fine plastic thread that may be a kind of fishing line. Some of it looks like shredded plastic bags. It's all woven together into a bag that was tied firmly to the thin twigs that are still attached. Twigs biodegrade faster than plastic. This plastic was recycled by resourceful orioles. What did they use before the plastic was available?

I wondered often as I watched these birds, what makes the orioles so daring compared to the robins and the swallows? Killdeer are even more carefree, barely building a nest at all. They just smooth out a slight hollow in the ground and lay their eggs out in the open. Which home would I choose if I could choose to be a bird? Would I prefer to be a protected swallow, a solidly anchored robin, an adrenalin seeking oriole, a phoebe who moves into other bird's nests, or a borderline neglectful killdeer? 

It's tempting to take this into a lesson about valuing all the different kinds of people in the world, but somehow I just can't put a neat bow on it like that. I do believe that all life is infinitely valuable. But everything is too complicated right now for a simplistic moral lesson, isn't it? Maybe it's enough to just love birds, for today.