Hooray, She's Back!

We're birds! My blog even tells you that. It was thirty-three years ago that I officially became a bird! Yes, I'm a "Crow", thanks to Glade. Now after all these years, our nest is getting quite populated, maybe because I gave birth to eight chirping birds and now they're all having baby birds!
I'm convinced the bird kingdom knows we're bird friendly, I think they sense our inner connectedness. Somehow they feel our love from miles away. Maybe that's where the saying, "Birds of a feather have to stick together" came from.
Every spring, birds fly in from all over the place and start nesting with us. For instance, I have a robin that comes just as the winter snow leaves. Every year she sits on my windowsill outside and tries to peck her way through my window. I have a giant pussy willow wreath that hangs on my wall and that red breasted bird thinks it's building material.
The killdeer love us too. I have a killdeer bird that builds her nest in my rocks out front every spring. The first year she decided to move in with us, our driveway was nothing more than road base. I guess she thought this looked suitable as a home for her unborn flock, because she built her nest right in the middle of it. Every time we pulled in and out of the driveway, we had to drive around her and the kids. After we paved her graveled domain, I put rocks around my Redmond Lindon out front. It didn't take long and she moved her nest right under the shade of it, we couldn't tell her eggs from the round speckled stones.  I'm sure this bird was elated with her new and improved upscale living conditions, because she comes back every year now to nest under the tree.
Then there are the magpies. The magpies are taking over my trees. There's a nest in my Flowering pear tree, two nests in my pines out back, nests all over the place. They're driving me wild. They come and try to eat the dog food. I'm sure with all the birds we entertain, my house has been advertised as just one giant bird hotel! News in the bird world has spread.  Now, no pun intended, we know birds in high places!
We have this fire place and a chimney to go along with it. The chimney has three flews. One flew services our bedroom, one flew takes care of the family room, and the last flew is a fake.

Every year the smaller birds try to make a nest in the flew that leads to my bedroom. I never use that fire place and the birds have gotten wind of this. Now they come and fight over who gets the nesting rights to the unused empty tubular condo.

A few years ago I heard lots of chirping and realized there were baby birds in my flew. Then one night on the way to bed I heard clicking and scratching sounds. There was a baby bird hoping around behind the fireplace insert right in my bedroom. Obviously this baby bird failed his flight test and now he was stuck in a vicarious position, one I couild not help him with. There's no way to access that space. This poor little birdie hopped around until starvation took hold of him and his life tragically ended, I guess you could say he fell to his death. That's been a long time ago, but some nights I still go to bed wondering if his little dead carcass behind my mantle has turned to dust yet.

I don't want any bird thinking we're bird murderers, so now every year when I hear the clatter-some
squawking sound of nest building, I run for the switch. I've learned a nice hot fire keeps them away. 

Meet Winifred! We're on a first name basis now because this is the third year she's been back to visit me. Winifred is a Wood Pecker! Up until now she's been content to peck on our dead popular stumps. We cut down our popular trees and left two tall stumps standing so we had a place to hang our hammock. Up until now Winifred loved the stumps. I guess this year she got tired of being a stump dweller and decided she was going to move to higher places. After three mornings of her annoying nest building attempts in the flew, I threw the switch and left the fire on all day. She quickly moved out and not hearing or seeing her for days, led me to believe I had seriously offended her and she was gone for good.

I couldn't believe my ears yesterday morning when I was sitting in my study and I heard Winifred pecking on something metal. "What in the world is that bird doing", I thought, hiding my residual glee that she hadn't left town. I decided to see for my self. I snuck outside and crept around the bushes on the east side of my house. Then I spotted her clear up in the sky. She likes my TXOX dish. Crazy bird! I ran back for my camera and my telephoto lens. She tolerated me snapping a few pictures of her, I am so happy she's back! I guess she still likes me.