Nature is Cruel

Russ and I have enjoyed watching the little sparrow who built her nest on top of our front porch light fixture again this year. It is the perfect spot for a small bird to nest. The lantern has a small round top so she can snug in a little nest behind it. Since it is under the cover of the porch roof no predictors can see the nest while flying above and it is protected from the weather.

The only issue with the nest being there is the mother bird flys off when we open the front door. So out of a abundance of hospitality, while the mother was sitting on her three little light blue eggs, we made Shay go out another door to go potty. It took a few days to train Shay to come back to the new door we sent her out, but even she eventually learned.

About two weeks ago the eggs hatched and we had three tiny fluff balls in the nest. Russ would stand on his tippy toes and take a photo every few days so we could see how they were doing. Yesterday we noticed the largest of the babies standing on the side of the nest. We are not sure if had flown yet, but he was certainly getting much bigger.

Tonight, while I was sitting at the kitchen counter I noticed a huge bird flying about three feet off the ground on our front porch. It flew off and then I noticed it came back I rushed to the front door because it looked as if the hawk was going after the nest.

As it flew away I saw two tiny sparrow flying after it. They were not able to catch the much larger bird, but I hope they scared him off. I know nothing about birds, but it certainly did not look like that hawk was bringing by a baby gift.

I like having hawks around to take care of moles, but they are useless on voles who remain largely underground and are my yards worst culprit. Despite liking the hawk hunting rodents I am not as enamored with it going after other birds. We have invested so much time watching this little family I would like to see it live long enough to move out at least so I can clean the lantern and get it ready for next spring.