Bird Stories

Last year, when we were looking at our house, the previous owners showed us how some birds had made a nest in the hanging basket on the front porch. By the time we moved in, it was only an empty nest.

About a month ago, we noticed some birds hanging out on our front porch a lot, singing sweet songs that we heard clearly through our front window. I believe they are Carolina Wrens. These sweet little birds apparently mate for life and stay in the same territories together year-round. Sure enough, we quickly noticed these birds making a nest in the same hanging basket that they did last year.



We have porch swing, and dh and I like to sit outside there for a little mom&dad time in the evenings. We would often see the poor mama bird flitting around nervously before finally, bravely, flying in to sit on her nest while we sat there, 3 feet away. We would occasionally try to look in the nest to see if there were eggs, but it was so cleverly constructed it was hard to see into it.

This weekend, dh and I were sitting there, and the poor little bird flew in, carrying something in her mouth - an insect, it looked like. She perched on the chains of the other hanging basket right in front of us, looking at us, measuring us, and came back a couple of times before finally flying in to her nest. The minute she reached the basket, we heard tiny little "cheep, cheep, meep, meep, meep" sounds - there were babies in the nest!!

We tried to get a picture of them yesterday - it didn't turn out so well as the babies are hard to see. They are so little, so new! It looks like there are 2 of them. We will try to post pictures as they grow as it's always so neat to watch babies grow up! :-)


Also this weekend, we had an amazing hummingbird experience. We have 3-5 hummingbirds buzzing around all the time, fighting over the 3 feeders I have out in our yard. We love it when they buzz us as we're taking the feeders for cleaning and refilling! They are so animated, we just love to watch them. When dh and I were out on the porch swing, we watched a hummingbird fighting a wasp over a small window feeder. At one point dh got up and flicked the wasp off the feeder so the poor hummingbird could get there. A little while later, the hummingbird came, took a drink, then buzzed over to us. She hovered for a few seconds, then settled down on the leaf of one of the trailing plants in the hanging basket. She sat there, watching us, for a good minute, while dh and I held our breaths and marveled at her smallness (she didn't even make the leaf sink down at all!) and her braveness (this tiny creature was just an arms-length away from me!) She watched us, and it was if she was saying "thanks" for the nectar we put out for them. Then she flew off. We just love our hummingbirds!