Living Spaces: 2011

One of my avian neighbor’s homes is lit by the late afternoon sun with my human neighbor’s house in the background.

Both homes weathered the winter pretty well. This nest is a robin’s nest, and their construction ability never ceases to amaze me considering they have a beak and claws to carry and manipulate construction materials, including dirt to make the hardened insides. From what I can see, they build a bowl of sturdier grasses, twigs and sometimes interesting items like a watchband or the plastic markers I use to mark seedlings in my garden. Then they add a layer of mud, and impress softer materials like finer grass, feathers and the odds and ends of colored yarn I toss out in the yard for that purpose, into the mud as it dries. This nest hangs over the street and aside from residential traffic a pretty good gust will blow past, plus all the ice and snow we’ve had this winter. Soon they’ll be back to clean it up and the nest will be back in business.