We have been having some bird drama around the schnabin over the last couple of days.
Last year when I arrived here for the summer I noticed that a critter had bored a hole in the siding on the east side of the schnabin. I thought maybe it was bees, but then I noticed a long piece of grass…it was a bird family that had taken up residence at the schnabin.
A few weeks later as I was making beds in the bunk room where the gbabies sleep, I heard some tweeting- and I don’t mean the social media kind. Apparently a new batch of eggs had hatched.
Drew and Hazel were visiting for a few days and we watched as the mama and papa birds flew up to the hole in the siding with breakfast lunch and dinner. At first we didn’t see the chicks. But after a few days they began poking their heads out of the hole waiting for food.
Then one afternoon when we checked on them, the mama bird was sitting on the telephone wire coaxing the babies out of the hole to test their wings. At first they looked like they were going to crash as they careened this way and that. But after a few days they were doing loop-do-loops in the air and I swear I could hear them laughing.
The day after girls left, I was once again making beds in their room and I noticed that the twittering had stopped. The little birds had all flown away. It made me sad.
I shared this story with the graduating class in May because it reminded me of their journey through the program. Somehow between the association with the gbabies and my graduating students, I got attached to those little birds.
You can imagine how happy I was when I arrived and found mama and papa bird were back. Drew and I watched them as they flew into the hole in the siding “feathering” their nest (how the heck did she know that word?)
Everything was going along as it should until I woke up to the sound of a woodpecker. It wasn’t pecking on a tree, the sound was clearly coming from the east side of the house. I poked my head out the door and sure enough a big-ass woodpecker was pecking away at the little birds’ home as they watched helplessly from the telephone wire. There were two of them and they were four times the size of my little birds. I chased them away, but they kept coming back and by the end of the day, the little birds had moved on. They knew when they were beaten.
I can’t help but think about the gentrification of our cities. How often do the “great and powerful” come in and chase the little guys out in order to feather their nests? What happens to the little birds who can’t begin to fight for their homes?
Well, this time I’m going to intervene on behalf of the little birds. Turns out I’m bigger than the woodpeckers. That hole will be sealed up for good. Score one (sort of) for the little guys – wherever they ended up.
Mountain Marmee 
A robin feathering his nest has very little time to rest while gathering his bits of twine and twig… Drew’s a Mary Poppins professional Marme.
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Well, of course. How could I have forgotten.
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“A robin feathering his nest has very little time to rest / while gathering his bits of twine and twig” -Mary Poppins
Too bad about the woodpeckers! Are those the hiring managers ripping apart and poking holes in our job applications?
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See the comment from Emily – great minds? Mary Poppins is obviously a source of great wisdom. I now officially don’t like woodpeckers.
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This is such a hilarious and scary ending to the graduation speech you gave us!
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