Heroes Not Zombies

Now that the mulberry tree has shed its leaves I can clearly see this little nest. It’s about the size of a saucer. For the last three years a tiny bird (I don’t know what it is….it’s so quick and timid I’ve not managed to get a good look at it) makes a nest like this in the mulberry tree.

One year I noticed there were four chicks in the nest, and frankly, I was amazed that even one chick could stay in such a flimsy looking small nest without falling out. Then one day I found all four of them on the grass at the foot of the tree. They’d ALL fallen out! I carefully lifted them, one by one, and popped them back in again…..which wasn’t easy! When I checked a couple of days later they had all gone. I’m presuming they all flew off because I saw no trace of them in the garden. The year before that I found several tiny eggs lying around the garden, and I never knew whether little chicks had hatched out of them before they were discarded or whether the eggs had fallen out of the nest at an early stage. The eggs were completely empty and clean and I had the feeling they’d been discarded after hatching.

This year the bird made its nest almost at the very end of a branch and every time the wind blew the branch moved a lot! I was convinced any chicks inside would be thrown out of it some time soon. But the nest was too high for me to see inside, so, I didn’t see any chicks this time around.

There are a number of things amaze me about this.

I wonder…is it the exact same bird which comes back to make a nest in this tree every year? Or do one of the chicks return to build it? Or is it a completely different bird every time?

I wonder….why on earth does this bird build such a tiny, flimsy nest in such apparently precarious (although well-hidden) places every year?

Each year this is a lesson for me – stop judging! You don’t always know best!

Whatever I think of this bird’s nest building skills and choices, it seems each year, year after year, eggs are laid, chicks hatch and they fly away when they are ready. So, it works, huh? Nature is such a great teacher in humility isn’t she?

As Montaigne would say “Que sais-je?” (What do I know?)