Nature’s Lessons: Birds and Our Porches

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Two Bird Stories

We have a lovely long porch on the front of our house, which in summer is graced by seven pots hung there with metal S-curve hangars, like you buy at a hardware store. I usually have four fern pots and three flower pots there. “Grace” may be a strong word for our simple porch but I like it, and the flowers and ferns.

Of course they need watering, which is a bit of a chore, but very doable, and this summer we’ve had plenty of rain so sometimes I didn’t even need to water them with a breeze from the west streaming rain our way.

However, some adult birds also think the pots are just lovely to plant their eggs in the middle, and birth their babies. I love babies—and birds as much as anybody BUT when the baby birds are born they present a problem. Of course. How do I water my plants when little birdlings are growing?

Well, not much. So I pretty much let them go, especially if a bird chooses one of the ferns to lay eggs. The ferns survive pretty well without much, especially if I just put a little water along the edges of the pot, not the middle where the babies grow.

This summer a lovely serene dove made her home in one fern pot. I saw her sitting there, day after day, minding her little ones. I groaned a little about not being able to water it, but the fern seemed to flourish anyway.

I was out on the porch stringing beans one morning when I decided to try getting a picture of the mother bird. I sneaked up, but of course the bird had a side eye, and when I got too close for her comfort, she steamed out of the pot. Irate, of course. I couldn’t blame her. Nosey me, who had to get a picture.

She returned later, thankfully, but fledging day came shortly. I noticed one little bird out on the edge of our pasture, struggling in the grass as she practiced flying a bit. Our dog saw it roughly at the same time, and before I could yell “stop” she had the poor birdie in her mouth, and began savoring the taste.

Oh I was mad at myself, the dog, and my curiosity that had led me to take the pictures. I’m not sure what happened to the other baby birds as they tried their wings, I hope one or more made it.

Such is life—whether you are a bird or a human being. We make mistakes, and someone or something loses. Dies. I was sad and vowed not to get too close to bird nests in the future. That was a needless loss. Dumb Mel.

***

A week or two later, we saw a hummingbird flitting himself around the ceiling since we often keep the garage door open in summer. Oh he was a strong one, and furiously flew around the garage for hours. At least 5 hours, that we witnessed. I tried seeking information online and was told to try chasing it gently with a broom to encourage it to leave. Which I did. He didn’t leave. I was disheartened. Would we have another dead bird—especially a lovely hummingbird on our hands? I fussed at my husband to do something, and finally he decided to tie up our glass bird feeder on a strong string on the garage door. It was worth a try. I praised him for trying, not sure it would do any good. A couple hours went by.

After supper, we went out in the garage and couldn’t see the hummingbird anywhere. Not fallen, or hiding. Had it survived? We took down the bird feeder and put in back on the deck where we usually kept it.

By Sunday morning we were convinced we were seeing the hummingbird back on the feeder. He had a tan coat rather than the bright blue or even reddish colors of the other birds who frequented it. At least we think that he survived. We kept the dog out of the garage, and the cat, pretty much.

Happily. We think.

***

What do you think?

What bird – or other animal or life lessons have you learned?