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.
Lindsey says
When I was younger (around 12 I think), I woke up one night to find a bat flying around my room…needless to say, it was not a great thing to wake up and find, but my dad was able to get it out the window. I don’t think I slept the rest of that night!
Katy says
we found a bird’s nest on our front porch! it ended up being a huge mess with poop and gross things everywhere…but my husband rigged up a video camera from the porch roof to film the mom feeding the babies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlM14Ome5FQ
Beth says
SO FUNNY- we just found one this weekend too! Except ours is located right above the overhead light in our garage- not good! Unfortunately we had to knock it down (there were no eggs) because last year there was one up there that caught on fire from the heat of the light! SCARY!
mmc says
I woke up one morning to find a young raccoon in our bathroom! My husband took it upon himself to save the $200+ and get the animal out by pushing him out of the window with a broomstick.
Erin says
We found an awful surprise this weekend- a bee’s nest in our floor! My husband was in the process of ripping up the floor and bees kept crawling out (huge furry bees)! I grabbed the dog and RAN out. He got a bottle of bee spray and took care of them. Good thing we planned on re-doing the entire floor!
Lorrie says
Several years ago, I actually had a bird nest in the grapevine wreath I had hung on my front door. Everytime we would open the front door, you would hear the swoosh of wings and see her fly over to the closest tree. She would sit there and just watch us until we would leave. We eventually started using the door through the garage and after a week or so, she moved her eggs.
I bet she was thinking, “stupid, stupid, stupid!”
Lauren says
My mama has recently become the Dr. Doolittle of Texas, it would seem. In the past two months she has had a turtle lay eggs in her yard, a dove lay eggs in the gutter outside her front door, and a rabbit have babies under her azaleas. My mom’s westie, Ellie has made friends with all of them.
Magchunk says
When I was a kid we had a bat fly into our house during the summer when the back door were open. Our house was small but tall, and of course the bat choose the highest corner in the stairwell that extended both floors. We lived with the bat for two days before someone could come capture it and escort it out. I named “her” Debbie, after one of my best friends of the time, which my mom still thinks is a riot.
kristi says
A former roommate of mine can be a bit excentric and swore to the entire house that she had a squirrel in her walls and above her bedroom. She is known to overexagerate just about everything, so they polietly nodded their heads and did their best to not be annoyed with her. A few months after the squirrel girl dropped it, one roommate came home to find a squirrel sitting on their dirty dishes eating their scraps from dinner. I guess it was just a case of the girl who cried squirrel!
Rachel @ Chicks & Chaps says
While replacing the doorknob on our backdoor, I found a yellow jacket nest behind the strike plate. While it was and old one, it still scared me that they could nest in such a thin place where you put your hand! Then, we had the box for our phone lines moved and when they opened it up, wasps nest! The installer said they are always in there so if you have wasps and can’t see the nest that would be a good place to look ;o) Too bad I don’t have a cute birdy story!
Nicole RJ says
We haven’t had any critters move in with us, but we did once have a bat join us in our livingroom to watch Batman Begins with us (seriously!). Scared the bejesus out of us!
Teesha says
Well, I’ve had a few mice in my house earlier this year! EEK! Even though they may be “cute” little creatures, they are NOT fun to have in your house! Needless to say, they had to go…thank goodness my boyfriend set the traps and we’re now rid of them.
As for birds, I had an “interracial” bird couple visit my ferns last year. Seriously, it was a white bird and a red robin that settled in and created a nest. I was hoping for some pink baby birds, but they were brown (*smile). Anyway, the momma bird would watch us as we sat on the porch and if I needed to water the pot, I’d tap on the pot for her to fly away, water the fern, and then she’d come back to sit on her eggs. It was very cute….except for the poop everywhere. LOL
Leslie says
My fiancé used to work and live full-time at a children’s camp, so his home was literally a one-room log cabin in the middle of the woods. With only screen windows and shutters, creatures got in all the time.
One night he woke to find a bat flying flying around the room. Before he could get up to try to shoo it out, he saw the cat (Seamus) leap from the end of the bed, catch the bat in mid-air and land on the floor with it beneath his front paws (he is de-clawed in the front). Then Seamus looked up at my fiancé and made this chirping noise that he does when he wants attention. Seamus then let my fiancé take the bat and release him outside as if that had been his plan all along.
Kristen in Atlanta says
Hi! I just forwarded an email to you about a contest sponsored by Cornell University Ornithology Lab for the
strangest places that birds build nests. There are prizes.
I bet you could win with that great picture!
Kate says
My sister forwarded this to me. She knows I love birds and nature. This is so cool. I would be so excited if I found that.
The best nature around man story I have is this. On a very foggy evening more like twilight mid-summer last year, I was driving down a major road in our area. This was a two lane road, highly developed with stores and strip malls and the like. As I was driving along, just in front of me, out of the very thick fog ambled (and I mean ambled, just strolling along) a 6 point buck crossed the street in front of me. It came out of the fog in such a way that is seemed supernatural. It was the neatest thing I had ever seen.
melanie u says
came across this sight at my aunt’s house in charlottesville last spring! a bird had made a nest in the back of the newspaper holder out by their mailbox.
they were sooo so sweet.
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/2327/newspaperbirds.jpg