jdbphoto
Kitchen Nativity
I crept into my kitchen to see
what caused this morning’s cacophony.
The high corner of the cupboard wall
seemed to be the source of all
the peepings and it’s then I guessed
a mother bird had made a nest
there above the kitchen ceiling,
where I thought the paint was peeling.
Instead, that white spilled down the wall
outside the kitchen is not at all
what I thought—salitre’s heavings,
but is instead the nestlings’ leavings.
The watching mother stays aloof
on the next-door neighbor’s roof
with mouth filled with a juicy grub.
Now she flies from roof to shrub,
objecting to my presence there,
so close to nestlings in her care.
And so I leave the bird’s domain,
lest nestlings’ voices be raised in vain.
Minutes later, all is still,
although I know ten minutes will
bring more protests from tiny beaks
for wormy treats that mama seeks.
So it is this year again
that Mother Nature invites guests in.
My house now shelters more than me—
my family stretched from “I” to “we.”
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
You’re amazing. How do you do this?
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I don’t know. My mind just thinks like this..Sometimes even when not writing. Weird. This actually happened. Yolanda called me into the kitchen. The birds must have just hatched as I hadn’t heard them before and their voices were faint. I saw the mother bird wanting to deliver a worm so came in. I haven’t heard them since. Hope they are all right. It has been very hot here. Hope they have survived.
She built a nest there last year and the noise was deafening for a month or so.
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I could make an intelligent rhyme of more than two lines. That you do this time after time is a really savant-y type thing, my friend.
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Your last line is precious!! And the composition of the photo fantastic!
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Thanks, Carol.
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Oh good. They just started cheeping again. Really loud!!! They’ve got their lungs working. Trying to get a picture of the mother and father birds but they fly in so fast and then hop out of sight. They are scolding and scolding. Better let them feed their babies.
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I’m pretty sure they are wrens.
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Could be? Yet from your photo, a house sparrow? Wrens here generally do not have that black collar. More typical of a sparrow.A wren has a different beak shape too. A little more pointy. I had swallow nest boxes around my house and the sparrows would get in there before the swallows came back from Capistrano. Like you write, the noise they made was raucous. Especially toward the end of this month. Then gone until the next year … Cheers Jamie
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But they have much longer beaks than sparrows do. I know sparrows. Their beaks are almost as long as hummingbird beaks. And quite straight, Very little if any bow to them.
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Pingback: Bad Photos of Mama and Papa Wren | lifelessons – a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown
The poem is great, but if that’s an English sparrow you should shoot the thing!
(English sparrows are a non-native invasive species and have given me so much grief the last two summers, taking over my tree swallow nests and killing a nesting adult swallow. This year I had to take one nest box down finally because they just would NOT let the swallows nest there. Fume, fume!)
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Definitely not sparrows. Beak is very long, head small., larger body.
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I saw the ones in your next post and, no, they aren’t. I was looking at the one in the pic above sitting on the orange ball. It definitely looks like an English sparrow — though I don’t know what all native varieties you have down there.
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Thanks, Christine. Their beaks are much longer that a sparrow’s beak and the body shape different. Hmm. Wish they’d slow down so I could get a better photo. My electricity has been off for 24 hours so I’m limited. Battery on my back up battery about shot. I’m using the hotspot on my phone for connection. What does one do when one is computerless? Guess I’ll find out. Thanks for responding. J
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I absolutely agree. That’s what I get for feeling I have to have a photo for every post. Should have explained in the post. Thanks for having my back!!! J
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This photo on this post is not the correct bird.. I just used it as an illustration..It was taken a few days ago. I posted other sketchy photos later of one of the actual parent birds.
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If you’re wanting a wren pic, there are some terrific ones on Pixabay.com, free for downloading.
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I’ll check it out.. Not a member but guess I could join. Usually I like to use my own photos but that seems to be impossible with these little creatures. The babies were REALLY LOUD ealier, but it is a relief. I was so afraid they’d died when they were so quiet yesterday afternoon and evening. They must be secure there as we had a huge storm last night that knocked out our electricity for 15 hours or more.
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