Ok, I admit. I am unabashedly giddy about our future new "neighbor". I'm 47 years old and I have never seen a bird's nest being built but there's one under construction on my front porch! And, sheesh, they are fast since the plant is pretty much new!
The day before Mother's Day (wasn't that only about 2 weeks ago?) we went to a nursery because I really wanted a fuschia to hang on my front porch. This week there's been a flurry of activity and I kept seeing two different colored birds (but the same sized – one had a reddish head and the other brown) flying in and out since our kitchen sink is the window right by the hanging plant. They flew in and out over and over day after day. Today the lightbulb went on in my head and I gently took the pot off the hanging hook and peeked. There's a nest being built! No, I did not touch it (I only held the very bottom of the pot and moved it slowly up and off the hook then down so I could see) and, yes, the birds have come back since I moved it. Good news! I just think this is so cool though I hope none of our 3 cats makes the discovery I did 🙁
Here's the hanging fuschia on our porch with my kitchen sink window to the right.
And here's the penthouse suite being built. Nature is amazing!! I am in awe. The only glitch is that fuschia's need almost daily watering (per my Sunset Western Garden Book). I watered today but made sure I tipped the cup of water to the far side of the nest. It's been in the 90s here this week and I have to water it but I will gladly let it die if it means a little life will not be disturbed should a wee little egg find it's way in there.
I have a porch that spans my front facade. The soffit that runs over the porch came down a bit about 8 years ago, and hubby would pop it back in. Over and over-same each spring. But we always had to wait out a nesting. So I made a huge fern plant (fake) and hung that near the downed area. The bait took-for a second family of winged creatures. Then I left up the hanging pots one year and put in winter flowers and got a nest there too. Last summer we got a new roof (I should have hoped for a tornado to blow the old one off :p ) and instructed the installers to fix the soffit only if the nest was empty. It was and the soffit no longer sagged. Until Boxing Day 2008 when the wind blew and the temps got to 70F in winter. I knew we needed a revisit from the roofer this May but we have two nests right now and if you go out the front door -I have learned not to!-your head gets dive bombed from the bird mama. So I wait. I guess birds don’t like the apple tree or the fake fern as well.