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April 16, 2010
Nesting Season
Yesterday morning I was eating my breakfast in front of the kitchen windows when I noticed two black birds (sparrows? starlings?) come fluttering around under my eaves. They spooked when they saw me through the glass. I saw twigs and thought, oh no, they're going to nest under my eaves. In a second I was out my back door to check, but there wasn't any sign of a nest. Back inside, I moved to a different vantage point where I suddenly noticed more twigs, sticking out the back corner of my barbecue. Hm. My slow brain goes back to Tuesday, when I cleaned a few strands of garden debris out of the BBQ when I made lunch, and believing the only openings were slits too small even for rodents, had chalked it up to the last windstorm. I went outside again to pull the twigs from the back just as the birds arrived again and aborted a BBQ landing! I opened the lid, and saw this.... |
I left the lid up so it doesn't look so appealing as a nest, and I cooked meat on it so the smell might deter them (does pork and bell peppers grilled with chili powder, cumin and garlic smell like predator or food to a small bird, do you think?) but I know, as soon as I have to put that lid down - assuming we FINALLY get some rain this spring - they're moving in. If it's not field mice in my house and pocket gophers in my flower beds, it's birds. Sigh. I prefer Llamavision. Or if it has to be birds, give me hawks and owls. Those horned owls that nested across the street in 2005 just love cocky little birds and rodents. We never had these problems when the owls lived in the neighbourhood, but with all the trees dying and being chopped down, where's a bird to go? My yard, great. But don't mess with my BBQ! |
I snapped this pic with my iPhone and sent it off to Richard, because my text message didn't do it justice. He was so shocked he phoned me back. When I got home at lunch, I had to take the grills, pans and elements out in order to get several dustpans worth of dried leaves, twigs, and some construction waste from my yard out of my barbecue! And then I fired it up to 600 degrees to bake off the bird poop for 15 minutes before I made lunch. God I hope that was long enough. Ew.Posted by anita at April 16, 2010 8:37 AM
Comments
LOL!!! You can't stop nature!
Posted by: Wandering Coyote | 09:48 19 April 2010
Too funny! Reminds me of an email I saw a few weeks ago of some bees that had set up shop in some poor guy's BBQ!!
Posted by: MarCdee | 09:14 23 April 2010
Yes, I thought of that one, too! A bird's nest isn't quite so spectacular, not unfinished at least.
Thank goodness this wasn't a situation of something already living in it - I would have cried if I had to destroy a nest with eggs in it. It's a good thing this pair of starlings aren't as aggressive as bees.... I've heard starlings can be pretty protective of their nests.
Luckily, after a week left open, when we finally closed it for our first real day of rain on Saturday, the birds didn't return this time. They've moved on, and anyway Mother Nature sent me a distraction... (WC you'd better not read the following!)
The latest man vs wild incident involved getting undressed for a shower one morning, only to see from the corner of my eye that there was something on my hip. When I brushed at the black blob and it didn't come off, the shrieking began. Richard got out of bed to rescue me so fast, his eyes didn't have time to adjust, so he was standing there squinting helplessly as I screamed at him. From spider my arachnophobic brain jumped to something I fear more: tics. Not a serious threat growing up in a city, but here.... But it was a spider, its jaws were just clamped into me and my first hesitant swipe probably missed it. I murdered for you, said Richard. My hero. Outside, spiders are one of nature's fascinating and wondrous creatures, not to mention useful exterminators of mosquitoes etc. Inside, they are the enemy, especially after they draw blood. This morning I STILL found myself checking every inch of my skin. Sigh.
Posted by: anita | 18:12 26 April 2010