The Konchar Family Blog

Yesterday I was walking around in the backyard and I noticed a nest in one of our Amur maple trees. It was a tiny nest (it is a tiny tree), and I further noticed that the nest had lots of little black squiggles of bird poop along the edge of it. I have always thought that birds are a bit disgusting, and this just reaffirmed that for me, but still, what I was looking at was good news. I excitedly told the children inside the house to turn off Pucca and come out in the yard to look at our new pet! Or Pets!

We aren't really sure how many birds are involved but we have seen two "parent-type" birds flying around. Josie hopped up on the fence to try and peek into the nest and swore (my kids with the swearing!) she saw a baby bird. But like I said these birds are really tiny and Jos is no ornithologist, so we still don't know much about our new pets. I gently pulled the branch down a little to try and get Josie a better look, when all of a sudden one of the adult birds flew out of a different part of the tree and "buzzed" me, causing me to simultaneously fling the branch back and do my "freakout dance". Pie just loves this move of mine, and will be sad to learn that he missed it. Basically, it is kind of a hoppy, skittery white-girl version of Michael Jackson's Thriller leg jiggle, but without sequined glove and the red leather Member's Only jacket. (But I was in my pajamas, and MJ has been wearing his ever since the trial.) I was a dance major, you know, so the thing isn't without a certain natural grace and fluidity. I should also note there is a scream involved. Anyway, both Jos and I were kind of freaked and decided it was time to go see about dinner. Today, things out at the nest seemed to be calmed down a bit, although one of the birds definitely kept a black beady eye on me. I took a picture of it, sitting there on the branch. I think it is a golden finch. But I am probably just making that up. Here is what we know:

At least two birds that can fly

Poop covered nest

One, possibly two baby birds

Bloodthirsty, beady-eyed and green bellied parents

Hard to see, but the disgusting nest is right in the middle of this picture.

*I feel that I should note that in spell checking this post, I discovered that for my whole adult life, I have been under the mistaken impression that the word is "orinthologist". It is actually "ornithologist". Idiot!