Well, gee. I guess you just never know, do you?
A few months ago, in early spring, I went over to my parents’ house to help with the housecleaning in preparation for a family event. After the bulk of the chores were done, I decided to step out on the back porch for a breath of air and to listen to any birds I could hear.
It was blooming time, so the leaves were their most lush, and the old lilac tree that stands right next to the back door was thick with fragrant, purple blooms. We love the few weeks a year that we get that waft in the face whenever we approach the house. Well, as I stood there, a little Black Capped Chickadee swooped in and landed on a branch right in front of me, so close I could see the wind rifling the feathers on his head like little bangs. He looked right at me.
“Hello,” I said cheerfully, “Hello little guy! Aren’t you- -“
Suddenly the bird leapt off the branch and dive-bombed directly at me, coming so close that if I had had lightening fast reflexes I could have snatched him right out of the air! I was a stunned, but before I could react, he did it again.
“Hey,” I said, “I think you’re real sweet and everything but - -“
No time to finish as I ducked the little black and white torpedo once again.
“What the heck are you doing?” I cried as I dove in the back door. I puzzled for a long while. I probably still smelled of cleanser. Was that bothering him? Was it the colour or pattern of my t-shirt? I wondered if there was a nest he was protecting, but a quick glance around revealed nothing. It even occurred to me to wonder if the chickadee thought I had some seeds.
So all I could do was chalk it up to a slightly over-exuberant bird and leave it be. I jotted some notes in my journal and carried on with the family event forgetting the incident completely.
Until a week ago.
I stepped out on the same back porch, again, for some air and to enjoy the quiet evening. By now the leaves aren’t quite as leafy, and the blossoms are long since spent and gone, but there the lilac stands, same as it has for years.
I don’t recall why I happened to glance up, but I haven’t stopped glancing since, for high in the branches I could see a nicely sized stick and grass nest inhabiting a “Y” in the uppermost part of our dear old lilac bush! (See photo below.) Of course I’m no expert, and the information I’ve found online so far tends to refer only to nest boxes and shows nests primarily from above (the nest is so high that even from the porch I can only see it from underneath), so I can’t be 100% sure it is a chickadee’s nest. But can it be mere coincidence that a chickadee happened to put in a great deal of effort towards chasing me away from the very same lilac tree that happens to be playing host to a wonderful little birds’ nest?
Well, whether it’s the chickadee’s nest or not, what’s for certain is that we had a family of wee little neighbours, last spring, and didn’t even know it. Well, we’ll be keeping a close, but respectfully distant, eye on our old lilac tree next spring. Count on it.
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