No room at the inn

Gallery

Posted on by

Last weekend we had to evict squatters who intended to take over part of our home. It broke my heart!

They chose a highly inappropriate spot, so they had to be shooed. I hate shooing anything especially delightful bird creatures.

A robin couple had been house hunting and thought our deck would be the perfect spot for raising a family. The view was fabulous, water plentiful and food too. It is a good neighborhood except for a pesky cat that likes a bird appetizer before dinner.

Our deck has a pergola, In the beam structure there is a small indentation where a feisty robin thought he could make a very luxurious nest. It would be one of those communities with all the amenities (there was even a bird bath spa on the deck!) except it came with people living in the house. People that like to use the deck.

With an achey heart, I dislodged the nest materials. Repeatedly. That robin was nothing if not tenacious. He was not being displaced easily. Prime nest building time is from early morning until noon. Sometimes later. Overnight there would be a new nest to remove. Every few hours I’d have to go out and take down the nesting materials (which were very interesting! There were some small sticks but a lot of soft bedding material. These were great parents). I had to do this before eggs started to appear.

Since the ideal spot extended the length of the pergola, he kept moving down a little thinking that would work better. It did not. Before we knew it we were cleaning out the entire beam. The beloved husband cut boards to fit inside the area so there wasn’t any place to nest. The robins are still here just not nesting on the deck.

Had they continued to roost on the structure, I would have had to get a midwife for the birth, schedule a christening (or maybe a bris?), plan a baby shower and come up with names for the newly hatched robinettes. My spring has just freed up!

Given my druthers, I would love to have them nest so I can watch the progress. The deck is not one of those spots where I could let them be. Wishing that robin family success.

I’m taking my “for rent” advertisement out of Bird Times.

Source: Pinclipart — moziru

57 thoughts on “No room at the inn”

  1. It is. At one of my jobs I got to see a robin brood. The nest was under a canopy by a storage trailer. OMG! It was so great watching them until they flew off.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  3. Oh ya – been there and even wrote a post once simply called “Evicted!” That was ten years ago and like clockwork, they seek that coach light elbow every year. I shoved a box and a crumpled-up bag up there which looks awful. I, too, am amazed how quickly they can build a nest and I wonder how they are able to apply mud to it? I would find mud splatters on the mailbox, porch, mat … nature is pretty amazing.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  8. I used to have a beautiful grapevine wreath on my front door until it became the spot for nesting! I hated to do it but had to remove nesting materials a couple of times before I gave up and retired my beautiful wreath. I love birds so much and enjoy watching them when they have nests in the trees but the front porch is a little too close for comfort !

    Hugs, Pam

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  9. Aaww the birds are soo cute but I can understand why you had to shoo them (the only birds that land on my home are pigeons and seagulls lol)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  10. I had that dilemma once with morning doves, which like to nest in the same spot every year and mate for life. I let it go for years but when I got new outdoor light fixtures (their site of choice) on the front porch, something had to be done. I felt awful destroying their work, they had even used leftover Christmas tree tinsel for a decorative look, but I persisted and won. I still felt bad though. It’s hard not to when they’re such diligent and fast workers!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  15. The first year I lived here a bird couple built a nest on my balcony in a corner under a chair. I didn’t see it until there were eggs in it so I let it stay. Now I keep an eye out for bird construction and sweep the bits away before they become a nest.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  18. they sure wil find a home soon ;O) we have martins here, they live under our roof.. and they decorate the boardwalk like crazy… I first was sad because the people complained, but as I heard they decorated people too, I decided to accept the challenge and they can stay….

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

    • Decorations are good! 🙂 I had a parking spot under a maple tree when I worked. For a month in the spring (mating season), it was covered in birds and yep, they decorated my car. I asked to be moved! Suggested they keep that spot for “employee of the month!”

      Like

      Reply ↓

  21. I’m lucky in that my neighbor next door has a big ole’ pine tree that is home to various types of birds and a few squirrels. And he has various bird feeders nearby it, so they know where “home” is. I get to watch them from my kitchen window without any maintenance!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  24. We had a mourning dove build nest in plants that we right up against one of our living room windows once and we watched the little ones come into the world and head off eventually. The window is just under the couch and the cats had fun watching all of it too. But we did cut the plant back before the next nesting season as we couldn’t open the window for quite awhile. Still, it was neat to watch.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

    • It is. At one of my jobs I got to see a robin brood. The nest was under a canopy by a storage trailer. OMG! It was so great watching them until they flew off. They came back to that site every year.

      Like

      Reply ↓

Don't be shy, I'd love to hear what you're thinking!

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s