Birdhouse robbery

Sad news around these parts today. Found this mess this morning. Looks like a raccoon or a squirrel had their way with the contents of this little birdhouse.

I’ve had my eye on this house for awhile, with some concern. It’s perched atop a four-by-four post on our deck, just three feet from the ground. I’d never intended or expected that any bird would actually take up residence; I put the house there just to sort of camouflage an old post that rose in an odd spot in the middle of the deck.

But last week we noticed little-brown-bird activity in the house, and I have been trying to design some kind of baffle to place on the post to keep the predators away. Something I could install without freaking out the birds in residence.

In fact, that was the project I was planning to take on today.

I’m not doing so great with the whole bird thing. There’s another nest, well, there was another nest that twice now has been robbed–started out as a Stellar’s Jay nest two years ago. It was perched under the eaves, quite accessible to raccoons or squirrels, and at some point the contents of it perished. Then this season a Robin settled in, converting the space to her own–about two weeks ago I found the nest on the ground.

It was a bad spot for a nest, and I probably should have thwarted all the original attempts to build there.

This morning’s discovery follows on the heels of my nightmare last night. It was so real. I was trying to close the sliding door but it wouldn’t flow–because of the flurry of new nicks and dents in it–it had been pried open. I looked around the house to see if everything was intact, and discovered that all the equipment in the studio was gone. The room was so bare.

Of course, we’ve been talking about updating our insurance. Especially after listening to Gary Mula’s story of his studio burning to a crisp. And then there was the car burglary last week, that did $700 in damage. And all the burglaries at our neighbors’.

I’m feeling a little anxious.

The air was below freezing at 7:30 this morning, and so still. The small birds tweeted now and again, but the herons were generally silent.

I carried my cup of coffee and my little binoculars to the edge of the ravine and peered. A few herons were perched high atop some maples along the west edge, others were tucked into branches below them and others were in nests. There was some preening going on, and one moment I just happened to catch a pair of the big birds briefly “in the act”.

The air was so sweet and the birds so charming; I realized that I could linger longer in the morning light, and I walked over to the pedestrian bridge to check things out from that vantage.

I’d only ever used my naked-eyes to check out the herons from the bridge, and it was wonderful to have some binoculars. I could finally see so much more of the structure of the rookery–very much like the photo above (except our trees are not green yet). Indeed, I started thinking of some of the sets of nests as “condos”.

I watched for a long time, observing the shapes of the birds, and the preening, and the array of feathers and colors. For the most part the birds were sedate, although there was one short instance of squawking and big flying–I surmised it to be a tussle for territory or a mate.

And then, out of nowhere, the birds rose in unison to the sky, and circled. I did not discern what provoked them, but I have seen them do this often–a sudden soaring up and away, and circling back.

This morning from my new vantage point I saw new elements of this pattern. The sentinels in the treetops had not left their posts, even while all the others soared off. And when the herons did return to the trees, many more landed in the treetops and lingered there. The rest that landed stayed in the branches; no one went straight-away to their nest.

I don’t know much about bird behavior. But I am imagining that they stayed away from the nests because it could actually be easier to defend the nests from a perch above them, where it would be easier to take flight, and to dive. Do herons fight with their beaks or their feet? Do they fight at all? I don’t know. I know that later in the season the eagles will come and harvest the hatchlings. But by then the trees will have leafed out and it will not easy to see the heron activity.

But today was a great day for watching.

Photo by Rick Leche and I am grateful to use it under Creative Commons licensing.

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