A new nest

Watching the Bushtits build their new nest methodically, meticulously has been a joy each year we've been lucky enough to watch it out our back window. I called them architects earlier. That's so but I'd bet that they're interior designers as well. This past week, they've been inside the nest working. One will fly in and spend several minutes there pushing something into place, poking it's beak into the wall while prodding some feather or piece of lint or moss firmly into place to cushion both mom and the chicks. We can only imagine the inside of this new home in which they'll spend only a few short weeks but, given their skill on the outside, I'm sure the inside is equally marvelous and pretty with it's many varied greens and soft browns. This nest building is fascinating and soothing to witness. We're reassured that "our" little birds will have a safe home.

The Merlins inhabit someone else's old home. I'm relieved to share that we've discovered the new location. In the tree photo, if you look to the right of the trunk, you'll see a few dark twigs and small branches. Voila! That's the new home. It's all we can see of it anyway. It seems that what the nest lacks in beauty and "amenities", it has in security. This picture, unfocussed as it is, is really the best angle for viewing. That's how well covered this nest is and that's how the Merlins (Spike, the female, is pictured) prefer it. I took the shot with my point and shoot from the lens of a birding scope on closeup focus. This look is the best, at the moment, that we'll get until the nest is weighed down by Mom and the kids and buffeted a bit from the winds and rain. These factors always change viewing but, for now, we "gawkers" in the neighborhood will just have to see what we can see and compare notes. It's somewhat ironic that our neighborhood predators, the Merlin Falcons, are hidden away about 100 feet up in a fir tree while the wee Bushtits in our yard dangle on a rose branch 7 feet above the cats and in plain view of the crows.