Mother Nature and Me: the bird files
As you saw yesterday, I decided to give Mother Nature (and her little friends Mr and Mrs Willy Wagtail) a bit of a helping hand when that dastardly old Gravity started to get too strong a grip on their dainty cobweb and horse-hair nest.
And while I was perched atop the step ladder, adding my delicately-placed clear sticky tape around the pipe (running from the laundry to the house) and the nest, in an effort to hold the latter atop the former, something happened.I’m afraid the journo/stickybeak in my rose to the surface…
You may well ask: What’s with this angle?
The camera angle I mean, not the angle of the nest, which is much better than it was five minutes before this photo was taken!
The position of the nest, tucked up high under the rafters (cleverly chosen by Mr and Mrs Wagtail to stop other animals stealing tiny eggs) meant I could not get my head easily in a spot to see inside the nest. I held TLW aloft long enough for her to declare:
Dere is dis many birdies in dere!
And holding aloft one, then two, then one finger.
Two or one? asked I (very patiently).
Dis many! said she, holding two, then one, then two fingers up.
So I did what any red-blooded stickybeak/ex-journo would do.
I held my camera in a variety of angles up in the rafters of the laundry to try and get evidence of the exact number of residents in the rescued birds’ nest.
And then, in examining one of the blurry shots, I saw something…
Can you see it?
Ah hah!
At least one (blurry) baby bird in the nest!
Ummm. OK. TLW was right.
One or two? Maybe more? Not sure.
I’ll get back to you.
6 Comments
Leslie
Love it! This is fascinating. 🙂
Kate
Look at that little mouth! So cute…and hungry. Wonderful journalistic skills my dear. Can’t wait to see more from this Willie Wagtail family. Thank you for saving them! (i’m still a bit worried about the snakes. Can’t they climb up there along the pole? EEK!)
Debby
Baby birds are so ugly. Faces only their mamas can love. They don’t start getting cute until they get feathers. Still, it’s fun to watch them grow.
Always an adventure at Granite Glen.
Your washer and dryer are outside?
Do a post on that…
Debby
BTW: Mine are in the basement, which is a good thing, because right now it is spitting snow, the first of the season.
Pony Girl
That is SO cool! You have taken such great photos of this process! Most people want to take down the nests! You have saved their little home! Now the family can be safe! 🙂
BOSSY
Yes! Baby bird mouth. This is the position Bossy always pictures her family as they wait for her to prepare the evening’s meal.