Try Try Again

It has
been
a tough
year for
our egg
layers
thus far.

One little feathered friend decided to lay her eggs in our Christmas tree. She diligently built her perfect little nest and laid two precious eggs only to have us come along and place the tree in our burn pile. The nest and eggs fell out on the way to the pile. The eggs were still in yolk stage but I felt absolutely horrible. Let it be a lesson...look before you remove an old tree, and better yet, just choose a spot to leave it until the end of Spring if you do not compost or burn it right away. The second bird came along and built her nest right above the lamp on our breezeway entry. She was scared witless every time we came in and out. Worse, when she laid her two eggs they were perilously close to the edge of the flat nest and there was no way the little ones wouldn't fall out when they hatched. I placed the nest from the Christmas tree to the underside of her nest for more support- which she promptly kicked out. This should have come as no surprise to me. The nesting bird remained there for a few more days but the comings and goings of the house inhabitants were too much and she left her nest for greener pastures. I later found the eggs with holes in them and the yolks gone. Nest failure number two. The most recent nest blunder could have had dire consequences for our family. Mama bird decided to build her nest in our dryer vent on the second floor of the house. At first we thought she was coming and going with lint for a nest elsewhere. But then we noticed we were hearing her far too often just to be making supply runs. What we found when we dismantled the vent was horrifying. She had packed the tube with three feet of dried grass- the last six inches displaying dangerous burn marks from the heat of the dryer. It is no small wonder that our house did not go up in flames. Earlier in the day I had noticed steam escaping from the vent so I was really surprised to find that the length of hose had been blocked. One thing is for sure, those four beautiful blue eggs had been par boiled right from the start. Once we changed out the hose and placed a new vent cover on the house, the reality of having these four little eggs in our possession hit me. I knew they were not viable but I also did not know what on earth to do with them. Throwing them out just didn't seem right. But I did not have the heart to break them open either. My husband came home and saw them sitting in the flower pot yesterday and looked at me with this look of disbelief. He not so gently reminded me of the the horrendous odor that would emit if one of those little darlings broke open. This morning I finally faced what had to be done. I got a plastic zip lock, placed them in it, and sealed it tight. I figured if there were just yolks, I could throw it out. If there were babies, I would give them a proper burial. Why on earth I am so emotional about these things? We are lucky to be alive after the close call with a near fire. Luckily all four eggs contained a semi cooked yolk. No sign of any life. I feel a little better. Here's to hoping these three Mama's have chosen better spots to bear their young.