Unannounced Visitors

/ roughwighting

I’m ambivalent about the scene at my front door.

Do I want them to come back?

And by saying “them” I don’t mean the parents. These visitors are the new generation. Yet they return to the scene of their parents’, ahem, indiscretions. I blush. I know the couple who came last year were monogamous. They met, they mated, and then they created a soft comfy home for their offspring.

I’ll admit, I admired the tenacity of the parents as they, unannounced and at first unwelcome, built a home right next to mine. In fact, they used my front porch, my front door, and more to the point, my wreath to build their family home. That mom sat on their twig-based nest, eggs warmed underneath her, for days and day. And days.

“When the heck will those eggs hatch?” I grumbled. We were unable to use our front door, you see. For over a month, to get in and out of our house we had to open our large and noisy garage door.

On the other hand, I fell in love with this couple. The dad-to-be brought treats to his sweetie as she warmed up their baby eggs. Worms and bugs and seeds. We filled our front yard bird feeder every day. $75 a week! But by then, we were invested emotionally in this family.

Finally, the babies hatched. The mom and dad fed them for days and days. And days. “When do they fly out of the nest?” I whined.

And then, suddenly mama bird taught them to fly. Several of them ‘got’ it first time around, but two of them just flew a foot up, and then gave up and came back down to the nest. The mom had little patience, though. I think I saw her push one of them out and the babe fumbled but made it to the nearest tree.

Should I mention that our front door was smeared with white baby poop?

Well, one of those babies is back this spring. With her own lover. She eyed the new wreath on our front door. The nest has begun.

Guess it’s time to write another sign by the front step, “Shhhh, babies sleeping.”

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY TO ALL.

90 thoughts on “Unannounced Visitors”

  1. love the idea of the sign babies sleeping – and that was the story I was going to share – a long time ago, some friends of ours had birds in their front porch plant and so they hung a sign and actually had everyone use the side door – wow

    Liked by 2 people

  2. Thanks to your cleverness, I didn’t catch on to bird babies’ theme right away. (And, no, I don’t cheat and skip ahead!)

    We can cheer lovebirds and overlook white baby bird poop!

    This is a reminder for me to change the nectar in my hummingbird feeder and to wish you HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! ((( )))

    Liked by 2 people

    • I wonder how many people cheat and go to the end of a story. I do like to start with a hook as you know! We have gotten our hummingbirds and I’m so excited! Change the nectar every week. You might have to do it more often because it’s probably hot down there. It’s 50° here today! Happy happy Mother’s Day Marian.

      Liked by 1 person

  8. How many times we’ve had bird poop dripping down our front door. We now are religious about removing our holiday wreath. Hugs

    Liked by 1 person

    • Ha. But it’s so fun to watch the romance and resultant nesting. This is my spring wreath with lots of space for a young family. We’ve got a scrubbing technique down. 🙃

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  10. We have a Mr. and Mrs. Bird nesting at the top of one of our outdoor lights. At least they didn’t choose the one by the front door. In the winter my husband put something on top of the light to discourage nest building. I guess they decided that it was still a perfect spot. 🙂

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  12. My dad was an ornithologist who worked for the Fish and Wildlife Service, so I’m a bird and animal lover. I certainly have nowhere near his knowledge. I have a fn memory of a bird called the purple martin. (They’re similar to a swallow.) They migrate as far as 5,000 miles, even to Brazil. They nest in those apartment style birdhouseswhich have six openings on two sides. Dad took their house down (it sat atop a large rectangular piece of wood, perhaps half the size of a flagpole) The year we were moving to California. When the martens returned, they flew around and around in the backyard as if they were searching for it. It was one of the most amazing things to me that they could navigate so far without a map or GPS to guide them.

    Liked by 2 people

    • Now that’s what I call the mother of all bird nests – six openings on two sides! Similar to the bat house one of my FIL’s friends built for us when we lived on larger property. But the bats seemed to prefer our garage attic. 🙂 We have a small birdhouse for wrens and are watching mom and dad fly in and out of the tiny hole as they prepare their nest.

      I feel sorry for ‘your’ martins who were looking for their annual nest. Their GPS certainly didn’t fail them!

      Liked by 1 person

  13. ‘Tis the season, and I’m glad you’re able to enjoy it close at hand! I’ve not seen any nests, but there clearly are young cardinals, bluejays, and chickadees being fed — there’s a lot of back-and-forthing to the feeders going on.

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    • Soooo much activity at the bird feeders. My guy re-fills ours every morning, but sometimes it’s empty by afternoon. I won’t let him fill it up again til the next day. I mean, they’re ‘eating us out of house and home’! 🙂

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  14. Such a sweet true story! My sister had a similar situation in a hanging plant on her front porch. She couldn’t see the eggs unless she climbed on something. But she was afraid to scare the mother away by coming too close. Fortunately, she was able to satisfy her curiosity without endangering the eggs.

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    • A hanging plant! I guess your sister couldn’t even water it. Our daughter has a bluebird house with a camera inside, so she and her kids get to see the birds making the nest, then the eggs, then the tiny ones cracking their shells into life. Pretty cool!

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    • Haha. Oops. No privacy in that outhouse! We have a wren birdhouse that is very active right now with a lovely couple. Lots of love going on around here – and gosh knows the world needs it. ❤

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  16. What I great experience.
    At our house, a pair of blackbirds were breeding just above our kitchen window. They come back every year to breed in our house vegetation.
    We wish you a happy weekend
    The Fab Four of Cley
    🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  17. So adorable. I am waiting patiently for my duck couple who nest in my yard. They don’t usually build the nest until the Iris are finished. My granddaughter and I named her Daphne (very clever right, Daphne the duck). Happy Mother’s Day to you. I always look forward to reading your post. Bernadette

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    • Hi Bernadette! It’s neat to know the breeding season of our feathered friends. “After the Iris are finished.” Problem is, everything seems to be blooming early this year. Our first yellow Iris has arisen, and she usually doesn’t appear until later this month. Will be interesting to see if the ducks use the Iris or the time of the month to decide to nest. Much luck to Daphne and her paramour. ❤

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  18. We had robins nesting in the rafters underneath our deck. we have a patio there that we don’t usually use but that year we hosted our family reunion. The robin parents were not happy with all the commotion but by the time everyone left they were back on the nest and happy. I love to watch wildlife familes.

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  19. Happy Mother’s Day! We also had nesters in our wreath last year – little wrens. The problem is, there’s not another easy way for human visitors to enter the house, si O regretfully did not put up the wreath this year.

    Liked by 1 person

    • I think next year I’ll hang the wreath across the front porch on the (protected) wall. Oh, no, then we won’t be able to sit out on the front porch. Hmmm. Maybe we have to build a second front door (haha). I heard that once a nest is built it’s “against the law” to try and move it. Hope it’s true – we need to protect our wildlife. xo

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  20. Not that I would want to have to use the side door or garage but I am still rather jealous of your wreath welcoming bird families! Proof once again how lovely a person you are!

    Such a lovely Mother’s Day story! And I wish for you a wonderful day!

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    • This may sound weird, Dale (and you know me, weird to the max) but I feel a kinship with those birds. I feel that they know that they are welcome. And I want to be a good example of ‘humanity’ to them. They have every right to not trust us, so when they do, that’s huge. ❤ Hope you had a great Mother’s Day. “May, May that lusty month of May.” 🙂

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      • It actually does not sound weird to me at all, Pam. I truly believe some species do understand where they can trust they will be kept safe. Such a beautiful story!
        And yes, I did, thanks. My son made me a delicious meal (for my mother and me and my daughter). Hope you were duly spoiled too! 💝

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        • You deserve to be spoiled, Dale. My son lives across the country but sent me a gorgeous bouquet with a beautiful message attached. You know I’ll be saving that card forever! And my daughter gave me a gift card for a facial. She knows me too well. 🙂 ❤

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  22. Oh this is so endearing Pam and I can relate totally as my house is slimed with bird poop. It’s such a joy to witness but ugh… your front door.. LOL! Once they planted in my studio planter box and all of my clients witnessed them day to day. it was about 3 ft off the ground and how the cats never got any of them I’ll never know. I always wish they would come back there but it was stressful!
    Enjoy the back door.. lol 😂❤️😇

    Liked by 1 person

    • 🙂 Very stressful. We feel we’re partly responsible for those bird babies!! I imagine your clients enjoyed seeing the parenting scene.

      To use our back door we’d have to climb about 35 steps up and down. Ummm, I guess that would be good for our legs. ;-0

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  23. Happy Mother’s Day, Pam. Glad those birds found your cozy front door wreath had a vacancy for them and their babies.

    Quick question: how do you know it’s offspring this year and not returning parents? Different tattoos? 😀

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  25. I remember your little freeloading family from last year, Pam! Not freeloaders I guess due to all the excitement and pleasure they bring you. That’s so lovely that one of the babies returned to start her own family. Awww…. I think this is going to be a yearly tradition. 🙂 ❤ ❤ ❤ Thanks for the wonderful story.

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  26. This warms my heart so much. I think I remember last years story about them. Or maybe I just want to remember it. I only have one door in or out so that could be a problem. 🙂 Baby poop of any kind is messy and something we moms deal with out of love. Hope you had a happy mother’s day too.

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    • You remember right, Marlene. I thought last year was a “one and done,” but nope, they like to return to the scene of their conceptions. 🙂 All of life is messy, and babies, as we all know, particularly so.

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  29. Haha, this is such a cute and chaotic story! I feel your pain about the front door being out of commission though, kind of like me right now, stuck waiting for my furniture cleaners to finish. At least you got adorable baby birds out of it; I’m just hoping my couch comes out stench-free! 😅

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  35. I missed my California babies, Pam. We had a trellis on the wall next to the front door. The first couple was the house finches. They had three lovely babies. Yes, we went in and out quietly not to startle them. The following year, the couple laid three eggs but four babies were hatched – I sneaked up to take photos all the way through. The year after that, it was a pair of mourning doves took occupancy. One partner didn’t do his shift, so the other one abandoned the last egg and was gone.

    But at another corner on the front porch, a pair of more mature mourning doves built the nest above the window frame outside of the kitchen. The babies were as big as the parents when they were ready to fly.

    My most precious baby was the baby hummingbird. From the day of his birth to the day we moved four years later, the ruby-throated baby never left our front yard. Even when his parents went south for the winter, he stayed, rained or shined.

    The people who bought our house didn’t feed the hummingbirds. I hope they survive somehow.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Wow – you had a bird-full bountiful yard, Miriam. Our hummingbirds can only be here May-September, but yes, I’m sure it’s the same ones (and their kids) who return year to year. I love the description of all your birds, and the dove partner who “didn’t do his shift.” Poor abandoned egg.

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  36. Oh Pam..just simply loved this writing! I could picture that little nest, the baby birds, the Momma and all the bird poop too! LOL!!! Love your sweet, wonder-full stories…

    Thanks, dear friend!

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