A hazard for birds who choose to nest in garden centers and nurseries is the
occasional nest built in a plant for sale! Today I finished planting seven Green Giant Thujas.
As I nestled one plant into its new hole in the ground out popped a
small grey-green frog before retreating back towards the trunk – a perfect
perch from which to survey its new home.
After planting the last tree we found two tiny House Sparrow eggs
broken in the bed of the truck.
Fortunately they were not formed, but were yolks inside very
fragile egg shells. Rushing back
to the tree we found deep inside the dense center a beautifully woven and
crafted nest. The nest was a very
deep and thickly woven mass of twigs, leaves larger than the sparrow itself,
grasses, a tiny piece of shiny clear plastic for decoration. What looked like the final touch was
an amazing bit of architecture topping off the nest – an awning or
umbrella! A fairly good-sized whole oak leaf, many times bigger than
the sparrow architect, was securely anchored at each end as part of the
weaving and positioned as a perfect awning over the nest. I did what any self-respecting lover
of birds would do – I rushed back to the nursery and returned the nest. They helped me find a location near
where it had been, but this time in a crab apple tree that was firmly anchored in the ground
and not for sale.
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