We have a bird that returns faithfully every spring to our upstairs dryer vent to build its nest. Every year, as the weather starts to turn warm, I get a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach because I know it's time to cover the opening again. It's not that I don't love the wonder of spring; it's just that I don't love wondering how deep into the workings of my dryer it's
getting!
The kids, on the other hand, can't wait for the bird to come back. It's always about 7:30 in the morning when they hear the first "scratches", and they come running in to announce the arrival. "The bird is back!!!" they scream. It is the same every year.
The first year, Mike let them trap the bird. Jer put it in a box with a clear top for observation. The kids had to go to school, so we put the box in the garage to postpone further study until the afternoon. When we returned, however, that clever little bird had pecked its way out of the plastic top and returned to freedom.
I assumed that little adventure had satisfied our young nature-lover. For the last two years, I've been able to say, "Not this time--we've already caught the bird..." when "spring" arrived. This year was different. Jeremy had built an amazing birdhouse out of Lego Duplos in the wintertime. It finally got used for something else, but by February, he had created an AMAZING birdhouse made from a Costo milk box. He made a glass top (from a picture frame in his bedroom) and a feeding tube through which he could safely pour food (from a plastic-wrap tube installed in the side of the box, a water bottle, and a water bottle lid with a hole cut into it--the lid was inserted into the tube, and the bottle could be screwed on and off as needed). It was brilliant--until I accidentally tripped on the glass lid one day when it was left on the laundry room floor.
I could tell the need was there, so when the bird came back, I tried not to make much of a fuss. It was this last Sunday morning. I was on my way to a meeting, so I let the kids (and Dad) do their thing... Jer made a series of three make-shift birdhouses throughout the course of the morning. Here are the kids with the first "house":
They had a grand old time watching the bird (which Mike identified as the highly-prized starling) until it was time for church. When we got home, it was in a new-and-improved cage (quite cool, actually). As it turns out, the bird had escaped from Jer's birdhouse #3. Fortunately, Mike was home sick, so he was able to catch the bird and create a new observation station:
That evening, Mike convinced a teary-eyed Jeremy to let the starling go, but so great was the experience, Jer was inspired to create a masking-tape model:
Ah, the wonders of childhood!
Happy Spring!
Jonathan has added quite a bit to his website, lately, including a cool new "post your question" section. He's always coming up with something new, and he gets quite a bit of traffic!
