Eggciting News
Sorry about the terrible egg pun but you’ll never believe what we discovered in my bike helmet out in the garage. Granted, it does demonstrate that we haven’t been out riding as often as we should but…
There’s a bird’s nest in there. And it’s not an abandoned old one, it’s currently in use! Sorry for the blurry photo (taken by Sherry as she teetered on a ladder to get a quick shot before “scaring them”).
And a few hours after our discovery we actually saw the momma bird warming her eggos (no more picture-taking ensued as we didn’t want to spook our new feathered friend). Isn’t it funny that a bird would go through all the trouble to build a nest inside of a helmet in our detached garage? We think she’s getting in by squeezing under the seal at the base of the garage door (there aren’t any other openings and we doubt she’s waiting for us to raise the door to fly in since she probably needs a bit more control than that).
Have any of you guys ever made any exciting animal kindgom discoveries? Perhaps you found a beehive in your basement or a bat in your attic? Does anyone have a skunk mishap to toss into the pot? Or a squirrels gone wild tale? Do tell.
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I love to bird watch in my backyard. This week I had a baby mocking bird running around trying to fly while the parents fussed at me and our dogs for being around. Also saw a pretty cardinal bathe in the birdbath. Yesterday I watched some robins build a nest in the tree by our patio. We’ve already had a dove nest outside the back door. Captured some cool photos of the baby from the kitchen window and caught some of the robins with their mouths full of nesting grass. Birds are amazing to me.
Aw. How cute! I can’t ever bring myself to disturb a bird’s nest either but there’s usually a HUGE mess afterwards!
One evening as I went out the back door, something caught my eye right in front off me on top of the grape arbor. Straining my eyes, I could see a big fat raccoon tiptoe-ing but frozen mid step with glowing eyes looking at me. His pose was comical and then he ran a way but we do have to keep our garbage cans locked tight with home-made raccoon proof closures. Cute but pesky.
That is so-o cool!
Ha Ha I have lots of stories of babies being born in funny places. My family owes a building stone/landscaping yard so we have lots of room which brings in lots of furry friends!
This spring alone we have have kittens born in a pile of boulders, a nest on top of a pile of pea gravel, and a hidden nest on pallet of stone.
We flag the nests so we keep clean with equipment but the kittens are harder to keep safe. If you click on my blog link you can read the story of what happen this week with a kitten born out at my family’s store. It is a lesson for all to NOT LITTER!
That is so cute! I loved finding bird’s nests around my parents’ big yard when I was young. I can’t say I’ve ever seen one like that though- I love it!
My latest “animal kingdom discovery” was a BAT flying into my apartment a couple weeks ago out of the chimney! It was quite the adventure- boyfriend, cat, and I were all scared to death! It ended up snoozing above my door the entire night and my landlord had to come get him out the next day!
What a fun discovery. We have a family of gardner snakes living under the mulch under one of our trees. They creap me out but I know they are harmless. Just this morning there were two kittens crawling on our basement window screen, I tried to go see them but they scampered away the moment they saw me:(
I had a mother bird make a nest at the top of the summer wreath I had on my front door. I actually blocked off the stoop for a few days because momma birds are notoriously skittish around the time that their babies fledge (leave the nest) and may abandon them at that time if they feel threatened.
It was awfully cute to come home and see Momma sitting on her nest on my front door for a couple of weeks. Those babies grow up awfully quickly! It seemed like one day there were fuzzy little bumblebee-sized hatchlings and the next, they were wearing little brown feather suits and were almost ready to fly. I left my house one morning and made a mental note to take a photo of them later that day, only to find an empty nest when I returned. But I did see young birds practicing flight at my neighbor’s roofline the next day, and I think that was them.
We had a beehive in the soffit above our kitchen window. We didn’t discover it until bees started coming into our house through the can light above the sink. Sadly, we ended up having to cut a hole in our kitchen ceiling and we (ok, the exterminator) cut out about 40 pounds of honeycomb and honey from the attic area. It was quite an experience.
I LOVE that discovery. So amazing to see the wee eggs in there.
We have a chickadee family that nests inside a hole in our one of the trunks of our lilac tree. They are adorable.
Just the other day I went outside to put our old produce where I feed the wild rabbits (which is near our back porch). While on the stairs on my way in I looked to my right and less than a foot away hanging in the tree was a gigantic black snake. Even though I do tend to over react about size, my snake love husband came out to catch and even said it was about 6 feet long and as fat as a coke can! Oh my! I am always on my toes when outside now!
I had the same thing happen! A sparrow decided that my step-dad’s helmet was a great place to build a nest! We keep our bikes suspended upside down from the ceiling and the helmets hang from the strap from the handle bars. So I guess she thought it was already nest like enough for her. We try not to let animals live in our garage because when they get shut in they try to get out the window, which is closed but we aren’t really sure how to move the nest so I guess it’ll just have to stay in there.
We had baby robins in a nest in the backyard. They were fun to watch. Before the eggs hatched, the mom would dive bomb us every time we went outside.
Not as adorable was the possum that took to our crawl space. It was enough for him/her to hang out under the house. He/she managed to crawl into a small hole around the shower plumbing and then into the wall behind the shower. Either the possum left a baby behind or failed to clean up after dinner, because our bathroom smelled like death for about a week or two. The fat, black corpse flies that followed were even worse. It was our own personal Amityville Horror for a while. Since then we have blocked all critter access to our crawl space.
It’s so neat here. We’re close enough to the beach and city yet sort of in a bit of a hilly park-like neighborhood with a baranca and 2 large regional parks nearby. We’ve seen raccoons, coyotes, rabbits, Red-Tailed Hawks, and we have a resident squirrel that my dog likes to terrorize! The birds in the tall Eucaliptus behind my house sound like the birdies in 1950′s Cinderella! I love seeing all of the little creatures around!
We just found 3 snakes in 3 weeks this past Spring. Not the animal (reptile, whatever) that I wanted to find. And they weren’t grass snakes. Apparently they arn’t harmful snakes, but I couldn’t care less about harm, I don’t like them. There was one in the garage, but in the landscaping by the front door, and one on the driveway.
My in-laws recently had a bird build a nest on top of their patio heater. And then they discovered a hummingbird nest in a little tree on their front patio. We think it’s because we sent our cockatiel to live with them when it kept waking up the baby – he’s attracting all the other birds!
And – a friend in high school once had a squirrel living in his truck. They happily coexisted for a few months.
We have multiple bird nests under our deck. We had a few bats in the attic of our old house. My parents once had a duck in their chimney. And my mom had a pet skunk as a kid.
on a side note… so sad you guys didnt win the challenge :(
Hey Amy,
No worries! We had a ton of fun riding the BHG roller coaster and we definitely think Nicole’s porch was fabulous. And fret not, we still have a ton of house projects up our sleeves- one of which we’re revealing on Monday! Stay tuned…
xo,
s
After a picnic a few years ago we went to throw the trash in the dumpsters. We were surprised by two fat raccoons laying in the garbage. They just looked up at us. Chillin’
I once had a bird build a nest in a fern hanging by my front door. It was in an apartment and the nest was still active when I moved out so I left it there.
We had a nest underneath a window AC unit! We didn’t know it until we went to move it out before our remodel started. There were baby birds and everything. We never checked on it, for hopes of having momma return. And now I don’t know if she ever did. But I’m hoping she did. The nest was abandoned afterwards, as I checked on it in the winter.
We have a bird that nests in the top of our chimney every spring. No worries – she’s gone by the time we need to use it in the winter. Sometimes she even flies down the chimney into the fireplace and we can hear her flying around in there. She always leaves after a few minutes. It makes me smile. It makes my cat crazy!
We also had a possum in our crawl space–came home from work one day and it smelled like something died in our house. The hubs is in charge of all things related to the crawl space. So he crawled around down there and came out with a dead possum. Yuck.
More recently, we have had carpenter bees making a nest in one of the rungs of our porch railing. I never thought they could make a nest in such a narrow piece of wood, but they would disappear down inside the thing. We had to get that taken care of!!
Off topic, but I was still able to vote today. I thought the contest ended yesterday.
Hey Marlene,
Yep, the contest did officially end yesterday and, like you, we were able to submit a vote today (looks like we had to in order to see the final tallies). We’re just assuming that all the votes from today won’t be counted. But thanks for checking!
-John
OMG, that is too cute and funny! We had a bunnies nest built in a small hole in our back lawn. I was so afraid that my husband accidently mowing over it, that I put large objects next to it to protect it. They are so adorable. I took a pic a couple of weeks ago…its on my blog here: http://in-time-out.blogspot.com/2009/05/week-20-project-365-and-some-cards.html
Yes! I have two stories…First, I had a robin that built a nest overnight (literally) in the wreath hanging on my front door! It had 3 tiny blue eggs. I made everyone go through the garage until the eggs hatched and the babies flew away. Second, I had a family of quail build a next and hatch 13 (yes, 13!) babies in the gravel under my stairs. I obsessed about those babies and cried when they all left. I grieved for days. :)
Oh yes, I have already had a bird make a nest (no eggs though) in my new decoration on our front door. Last year I was hearing noises in my walls and come to find out we had squirrels having a “party” in our attic stomping down all the insulation. Found the hole, plugged it up and ruined the good time of those party animals.
We once had a black snake sunning itself on the lid of the sand box.
We also had to catch a bird that had somehow come through the chimney and furnace to end up in the basement years ago.
More recently we had a pair of house wrens that build their nest every single year in the same pot on our back porch. I always turn it and angle it so we can see it from the kitchen window. This will be our fourth year (she is sitting on eggs right now) to watch the entire process through the window with a flashlight.
That’s very neat!
The night we got the keys for our house, we headed over to have a picnic in the living room with our kids. To our surprise, there were 4 tiny baby birds on the ledge of our porch out back. We’ve enjoyed watching them grow,
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3637/3547900106_028e6f3be4_o.jpg
My husband found a massive beehive behind the wall in what was a closet, and is being turned into a bathroom. Because they built it between the sheet rock and the outer wall, you can see all the layers, just like those ant farm things.
How about four baby raccoons in the basement?? Yup. Momma got in somehow and liked it there. It took a lot of work to get them out. They had taken up residence in a furnace duct. The babies went to a rehab center and are doing great there. Totally cute! But not what you want to find in your basement. :) ~~Rhonda
I have a stinky story to share. My parents’ house has some bedrooms that are at garden level. My childhood room was on that level, and I often opened the window to get some fresh air in. My mom planted some large cactus plants (cacti?) outside the window, and one night a skunk wandered into our yard. He must have been curious about our house and tried to look in the window, but we figure it bumped into a cactus and became alarmed because it unleashed and sprayed directly into the window of my room. The smell was unbearable and worse than you could ever imagine. I can almost smell it just thinking about it. On the bright side, most “bad smells” don’t bother me so much now. It’s all about perspective. :)
We’ve had lots of nests this year, but I assumed that is because we keep our feeders filled most of the time and hang suet in the winter. We had baby robins in the trellis; a darling little wren’s nest inside the shed, and a sparrow’s nest in the front topiary tree. The sparrows just started hatching yesterday. Those were the ones we could peek into and take pictures of. I know of four or five other nests around the yard (sparrows, chickadees, mockingbirds, cardinals, and downy woodpeckers). It’s been a fun spring.
That is awesome. Way better than our encounter with a squirrel. Last year a squirrel actually ate his way through our window screen and couldn’t find his way back out. It was a disaster.
you can read about it here: http://thecoloradodesert.blogspot.com/2009/05/i-really-think-i-might-hate-you-earl.html
I have a great skunk story – but it wasn’t at my house, so it probably doesn’t count.
This year we have a very loud bunch of crows who decided to build a nest in one of the two mature locust trees in our front yard. Not only are they loud, they have terrible, um, bathroom habits. Let’s just say that no one looks up and we run through the front yard to get to our cars. They seem to have gone in the last week and we’re very glad not to be sharing our yard with that obnoxious, not-potty trained family.
What a cute story, thanks youngsters! My own wild animal story is about the cats who’d burrow nests in the hay stacks in our barn. Little kittens would mew and poke their heads out of the sides of hay bales! My parents would always want to take ‘em to the pound. I did odd jobs for my parents and neighbors and saved money to get them fixed. Then I found a Second Chance Rescue to find homes for them. In high school I became a SCR foster parent for puppies, but they fired me because I had a 50 percent retention rate–of the eight puppies I fostered, we ended up adopting four. What can I say? I was like Elmira from Tiny Toons.
I couldn’t believe your post when I saw it because my sister just told me that they have a mom and baby birds living in her bike helmet that is on their back balcony. I guess bike helmets are a great nesting place. Does this mean you have to get a new bike helmet :)
I currently have a bird that has decided to live in my dryer vent! Don’t know if it has a nest or family in there or not. I certainly hope not. As much as I would love to let it stay, ensuring the dryer vents properly is a little more important for us right now. Have a handy man with a tall ladder coming next week to get that sealed up (how in the world did it get in there?)and gently help the bird relocate to another part of the yard.
Every year some birds would build thei rnest right outside our front door. I felt bad about disturbing them every morning and evening when I would leave and come from work, but what could I do? We would hear them cheeping away when we were at home, after the chicks hatched. It was wonderful.
The eggs are cute–we had a nest in our front door wreath this spring. Although I will warn you–when the baby birds hatch, there is awhile when they don’t fly, but they eat as the momma bird brings them food. So they poop ALL OVER the nest and whatever it’s built on. I wasn’t prepared for that. I had to throw out my wreath and scrub the front door!! Your helmet may be ruined. But they sure are cute!
We had a mama raccoon take up residency with her babies in our chimney!!! We were afraid the flu might come open and we would have very mad mama in the house so we propped wood up against it to prevent that from ever happening. They were very noisy little babies in there. We made the mistake of putting moth balls in to get rid of them well…. the smell came into the house too. long story short they did leave eventually and we capped off the chimney but getting rid of that smell was not fun!!!!
My fiance and I are in the midst of moving from our apartments into our first home and recently found a very similar nest in our garage! It was in one of the open side walls, very low, so I just had to show it to my visiting niece and nephew. We opted to leave it alone, not to disturb Mommy or her little ones.
Our current apartment has had bird attacks of its own, but in a different way. They’ve taken over the attic. One evening in particular, I heard a very loud, stressed out chirping right next to the attic door. This concerned but freaked me out more than anything. Of course, when the gentleman arrived home that night, the bird went completely silent (to bed, presumably). The next day we checked, and there it was, a tiny fluff-ball of an animal, sleeping quietly in the corner. In this respect, apartment living can be wonderful; we called our landlord, who has an animal-friendly remover.
That person had to be called earlier this spring when one morning I was leaving for work and was nearly knocked over with a terrible, gagging smell. Apparently, there had been a skunk fight under our enclosed stairway — the smell stayed for a month. But, there was no skunk to be found. So, a safe trap was set; we doubted we’d get anything, but we left one morning, talking, and absent-mindedly came face-to-face with a pretty happy skunk. He was nibbling his food and looked up at us, almost to say “Hey, guys! Check out this awesome restaurant I found!! Want some?”
Can’t wait to see what animal stories await us at our new house!
My husband’s parents had a bird’s nest in the shrub outside their dining room window. They would watch the momma-bird come and go, look at the eggs – all through the window, never touched it. Ravens came and ate the eggs.
Apparently ravens are smart enough that they’ll notice if you’re paying attention to something and go to investigate. Weird, right??
We live 20 minutes west of Short Pump, so we have a lot of experience with wildlife. Just last week a black bear, albino turkey, and rabid fox were all spotted in our neighborhood. Our worst experience has to be the skunk that decided to make a home under our house two winters ago. It sprayed several times in one week, always in the middle of the night. The smell was so overpowering that we had to escape to my parents’ house. Luckily, Southern States sells an all natural spray that repels a number of small animals including skunks. That stuff works! Still, we had to wash or dry clean every fabric item in our house and set off several odor bombs to get rid of the smell!
My husband and I have bees nesting somewhere under our patio/possibly in the wall of our house. We’ve observed them flying into a small hole in the ground, and we can hear them buzzing around if we pound on the wall. Not fun. We’re trying to take care of the problem ourselves, but we might have to call a bee removal company. Because of the way our house is built into the ground, they might have to drill a hole in the wall to get to the bees. Ah, homeownership.
I love the helmet nest!
We live in Chicago and had a birds nest on our back deck. Nature in the city is always unexpected and exciting. We checked in on those birds daily and it is amazing how quickly the eggs hatched and those little birds grew SO FAST. It was only 2 weeks of watching the mamma bird sit, the babies be born, and then the babies flew away.
amazing.
I had a nest in my hanging flower pot, they hatched, and then mysteriously disappeared. The murder mystery was never solved :( real life is can be so harsh!
Yesterday I noticed our cats were sitting together (atypical behavior) on our porch looking down at something in the yard. I quietly moved over to get a look and there was a baby ground hog looking up the cats as if to say, “can you come out and play with me”! My presence broke the spell and a chase ensued. Fortunately the little guy was able to seek refuge in a nearby brush pile. Never a dull moment on the farm!
My husband and I are working on the yard of our new house, and the previous owner had created a giant pile in the back corner with everything he no longer wanted in the house. Sean referred to it as the wombat cave. Turns out that true inhabitant was a ragged looking bunny.
We frequently find birds’ nests in the front and back yards, but by far, the most unexpected place was inside the grill on the back patio. My best guess is that the mama bird got in there through the small vent holes in the top of the grill. She was none too happy when my nieces opened the grill one day being nosy — she swooped right their heads!
Also had a nest in process in my grill and (I know I should be ashamed but I needed to cook) I cleaned it out. It was back two days later complete with eggs. Figured I should let nature take its course and eventually they flew the coop but I didn’t cook out the rest of the summer – I was a bit queasy! Other “find” was a nest of baby bunnies in my completely bare back yard (no trees or anything – just burrowed in too tall grass & I have two dogs who had to be walked for several weeks instead of just turning out to run the yard!