A Work Of Art . . .

Bob told me there was a Robins egg laying under my new Peony we planted last fall (that, by the way, didn't bloom this year). He said it had been laying there for a couple of days. We find half eggs around here all the time but never a whole one. We let it lay a few more days and then I went and retrieved it.

A perfect Robins egg. But there must have been some reason that she pitched it out. I guess I'll never know what that was. Remember I had posted on a nest with babies in it. Well, it's been empty for a couple of weeks and if they were going to reuse it, which I understand is seldom, they would have done that by now. So I decided I wanted the nest. But what a 'happy accident' to find an egg to put in it.

As far as I'm concerned this is definitely a work of art. It is composed of a mixture of grass and mud, which got me to thinking - just how much mud does one little robin have to carry to make this big nest? How much mud could she possibly put in her little beak at a time? And how many trips would she have to make? Well, she does have the males help in doing this but still . . . I tried looking it up but didn't find an answer to that question. I did read that building a nest takes 4-6 days, but can take up to 20 days in bad weather. Probably more than half of the 2nd broods are raised in a 2nd location. That must be why nest building keeps our robins so busy.I also didn't know why the males are so much prettier than the females. When she is incubating the eggs presumably, the drabness is less conspicuous to nest predators.

While we're on the subject of birds I stopped at a garage sale the other day and found 2 old bird feeders. I liked them because they can be put on a pole and stuck anywhere in the yard which means closer to the deck than our hanging ones, and better bird pictures.
This first one is a bit rough and has some broken pieces but who cares - I find it primitive and charming. It is a feeder on the bottom and has a birdhouse on the top. I wonder if anyone will actually move in - might be kind of noisy with the restaurant downstairs! A little rough, yes, but for $1 I'll get a couple of years use out of it!

This feeder someone painted. Ok but it's really dirty and I'm not nuts about it so someone is going to paint it again. Looks like they used it for a planter.

Presto! It's done! Well, not really I still have to put some varnish on it. I did like that it already had holes and rough spots - made for less sanding and roughing it up for me. I did do a bit of sanding the paint off that I had painted on so the antiquing would show up more. Love that big hole on the bottom right corner. Hope the birds like it. I'm just letting it air for now and have decided to use an acrylic varnish because it isn't as strong smelling. It probably won't last as long outside and I'll have to re do it but that's ok - it also won't be so offensive to the birds and whoever else chooses to visit it.
Now, to get Bob to work on the poles and putting them in the yard somewhere close to my 2 new trees we've planted to attract the birds too. Now they can grab a bite and go sit in a tree and pose for me.