Wednesday 19 April 2023
Nests
The Easter decorations have been put away for another year. I've got several nests that date from the time when we lived in a farmhouse whose garden had mature oak trees, a large cedar and other specimen trees and a stand of self-sown ash. The ash grew tall and spindly and we gradually thinned them out and stacked the wood, very conscious of the old saying that wood warms you three times, once in the cutting down, second in the chopping logs and finally in the burning. Two of the abandoned nests are, I think, belonging to wrens. They are beautifully constructed, round and neat, warm with moss, and, what's that - lined with strands of my hair! (The eggs are not related to the nests, just popped in when found abandoned, and blown.) One of the nests, the one with feathers, is an absolute mess, a flat piece of moss on the base and then the carelessly placed, but very soft and warm feathers. If you know which bird would own up to such a messy home then do let me know.
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Sad they were abandoned. They are wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI agree, think of all the effort and skill that went into making them.
DeleteTruly works of art.
ReplyDeleteThey are beautiful, and you did well in keeping them. I have two blackbird nests from the climbing ivy covering the wall of O.K.'s parents' house. They were of course empty when O.K. cut the ivy, and I have used them in the past for Easter and autumn decoration in my flat. This year, I have hardly done any decorating for Easter; I just didn't feel like it, but the nests are still there and will probably come out of the cupboard for autumn.
ReplyDeleteI keep them wrapped up in a box and display them only for a short while each Easter. I must remember to brush my hair outside in the hopes that the escaping strands might be put to good use! Like OK I would touch neither egg nor nest until I was sure it had been left and would be oof no further use.
DeleteCan you be sure the nests have been abandoned? That the wrens aren't presently saying, "Tell you what, let's holiday at that place we stayed at last year. So neat and cosy."
ReplyDeleteOnly to find it gone.
I've had these nests for quite a long time and I think that they had mostly fallen out of trees or bushes and thereby lost their safe and cosy status. The random eggs were found on the ground and cold. The farmhouse garden was plagued by jays, beautiful looking but mean-spirited birds who would be the cause of loud aerial battles when they stole the blackbird fledglings from their nests. Our present garden has a pair of magpies bobbing jauntily about as though they own the place.
DeleteSo glad to read you again :)
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