nest

Fall chores around here include taking screens off all the windows and storing them in the barn, replacing screen doors with storm doors and pulling up tomato plants and cucumber vines from the garden. We leave the still hardy chard and kale undisturbed. They are fall plants and love the cooler weather. We stuff their leaves into the Blendtec each morning and grind them up with bananas, frozen blueberries and other mysterious healthy things. What a great breakfast!

Another fall ritual is removing the nest from above the front porch light. Every spring without fail the nest building begins. A scattering of moss and dirt on the porch floor are the first sign. I look up to see the foundation being laid. Every nest has a similar shape but the materials vary year to year. I often wonder what piece of my life will be woven into this temporary home. One year it was woven thick with our dog Niki's blond fur. This year it is composed of hay from our compost pile and a few strands of pale green plastic. Pushing the soft feathers aside, I found an egg. A piece of information left behind. The mother bird is so fast, rushing from the nest when the front door is open that I have been unable to identify her species. Her coloring is bland. Grey brown. A sparrow? Barn swallow? I can check Peterson's Guide to Birds  based on the color and size of this little egg.

Birds return to where they were born. There's no changing their minds. By next spring I will meet the next generation and hopefully call her by name.