The bird's nest used again..

Yard being cleaned for the funeral rites and all the scraps of old bird's nests taken down from the various beams where they had been left until the chance come to do the annual cleaning.

I look in one or two which had been used, not wanting to see any skeletons or so of chicks which did not make it but glad there were none.

Then as the funeral rites proceed , one bird finds a corner and construction resumes. I am not in charge so I am nervous that those in charge would want to remove the nest.

Funeral comes and goes and then the days pass as bird sits comfortably. I pass it looking up now and then.. the only nest in the more or less clean space.

Soon I see four small beaks open without sounds and I feel afraid as I wonder what would h appen to them if the mother does not come back. It is nice to live in a place where bird's nest but it is not nice to have to let 'nature' takes its course or be anxious about what if.

The nest is deep so somedays I don't see the beaks. I wonder if they died. I don't like to see the bare heads with closed eyes and open beaks. Then one day I see the chick outside the nest standing waiting to fly off. Nice looking fluffly chick. I realise it is the last chick, that the others have probably gone on when I was not looking.

Another time a chick had landed on the concrete and I had no idea what to do until I passed an hour or so later and realised that the chick must have flown off. I leave this one alone and hope for the best.

The empty nest is there.  I keep passing it, thinking I need to clear it down,  so that the place could resume the nice spotless clean look for Christmas and so.  I don't see any other nests in the making.

There are no other scraps anywhere else but as with so many other things, I keep putting it off.

One night my eyes turn to the corner to remind myself to take down the nest when I see the tail and the eyes and beak staring at me.. No movement. I don't know if it is the same bird who in less than a few weeks is ready again to hatch. Or a different bird.


I have never seen this before, in the six years or so since birds have started nesting in the bottom house beams , that the nest becomes the hatching space a second time.

And I am glad that I did not pull down the nest, as I get ready for another anxious cycle of leaving the bird alone, looking for the beaks, hoping to see the chicks before they fly off the top of the post without falling down.