Spring's Nursery

This spring, our backyard has turned into a maternity ward. We first discovered the dove's nest. A dove! Okay, not the pretty white ones, the brown ones, but they are still pretty. Those eyes! My husband stumbled upon the nest while trying to reposition an out of control vine when a bird suddenly sprang from a nest - the sight of which nearly knocked him off his ladder! Now we were curious. We looked in and there were two fairly large eggs. We check on the nest periodically and sure enough mamma (we presume) is on the job warming those eggs. We can see another dove watching from a distant tree which we assume is the papa. My husband says it's our own Decorah Eagles! But that's not all...

As part of our spring cleaning, my husband went to clean out our much neglected shed. He was about to lift off the tarp that was draped over our patio chairs when a small bird darted out and flew to a shelf. Again startled by an unexpected birds nest, he looked in the tarp and sure enough there was a nest with 5 small eggs! We're not sure what the bird is yet but it looks like a chubby finch. We checked on the nest today and the eggs have already hatched! Could the dove eggs be far behind? It got me thinking about spring renewal, nesting, and watching over babies. The backyard is alive with chirping and newborns. Even though my own babies are not babies anymore, I'm feeling protective of my little bird mothers and their offspring. Happy spring!