birds of the air

Sometime late January, a bird started building a nest at the back of our house. We had seen this happening previously, but it was just above the outdoor kitchen, so we decided it was not in the best interests of the bird (and our food!)

Not sure if it was the same bird, or even species, the same happened again. It picked the clothes peg as a base. Every day it would fly back and forth, bringing with it tiny pieces of twigs or dry leaves. There are other unidentifiable materials which looked like fur, bark and granules; bits from nature I'm sure.

My mum had wanted to dislodge the nest again, as it was occupying the clothes line. Which she did; carefully covering the fledgling nest with a plastic bag and putting it aside. A few days after that, another nest sprung up on the next clothes line!

I thought, this bird must be really resilient. We decided not to disturb this one; pity the bird which must be really needing a place of rest under the shades of our back garden.

My mum even attached the earlier nest next to the new one, carefully not to let her hand give away any hint of human activity. We decided to pull a new clothesline and moved the nest further out so that both parties would have their own space.

Soon, the nest grew, surely and steadily. During those times when I was working from home, I took the opportunity to just stand still and observe the bird build the nest. I was so engrossed I didn't even remember taking pictures of the initial construction!

Just a few weeks ago, I noticed the bird had already started occupying the nest in the evening. It has a bulbous curve at the back, with seemingly plenty of space inside for the yellow-breasted bird I can't name.

Whenever I'm out washing the dishes in the evening, I'd steal a peek at the bird, with just the head sticking out of the nest. It's the only time I get to look at the bird at such a close range so still, too bad it's too dark to take a proper picture.

For a few weeks, I wondered when the bird would start to lay eggs. To my surprise this week I heard tiny chirps and saw little beaks sticking out of the nest! Even before I saw the eggs, they had already hatched and now the little babies are already out.

It's amazing seeing the beauty of God's creation slowly unfolding like that. When I look at how seemingly simple life is for these birds, I can't help but thank God that He cares about the details of my seemingly complicated life too.