The Home Nest

Our home is a haven for birds. We have only a few acres, but on that land we have over 100 fruit trees, many raspberry and currant bushes, a small creek surrounded by tall trees, and a very long hedgerow all of which provide food and shelter to bird life galore! So when I came out of our house this morning and spotted these two doves, I thought they were pretty sitting there on our old plough, but they were not an uncommon sight.

And we do get to see lots of birds nests, like the ones I blogged about here and there but usually it's only the common birds that we get to see in their nests, like sparrows and robins and doves.

So I was particularly happy to spot two different birds nesting this week - birds I see regularly flitting around our farm, but rarely have seen on their nest.

Can you see what's peeking out of this tree?

It may just look like a thorn, but it's really this flicker, peeking out to see if it's safe to leave her little ones.

Flickers are a type of woodpecker, which you can easily assume from the skillful manner in which they bore a perfect hole for their nest. Now that I know where they're nesting, I'll keep checking back, hoping to spot the little fledglings when they emerge to try out their wings.

And yesterday, I found this oriole nest, which was really exciting since the oriole builds such an elaborate hanging nest. You can just see the bright yellow female there in the leaves, about to bring her little ones some food.

We have a nest of our own, of course. Here's a picture of the front of our house with one of my favourite roses which is currently in bloom.

And a picture of my favourite garden sign that I found several years ago and hung on one of our arbours. It was just plain metal when I hung it, but now it has the most lovely patina of rust.

Every time I walk through that arbour to our side door, I am reminded of the sense of belonging and security that are associated with the word "Home." If birds could speak our language, I think they'd feel the same way about the word "Nest" - a safe place, a haven, a protected environment where all things, especially love, can grow.