A few years ago - three years this Fall to be precise - I had a maple tree planted in my front yard.
I'm a diehard treehugger but when I bought my old house one of the first things I did was take down three trees in the front yard - two live, one dead. They were scraggly looking fir trees that just didn't "go" with my 200+ year old house. I'm sure my neighbors were horrified.
But I had a vision - of a beautiful, large tree gracing the middle of my front yard - the kind of tree you see out in front of the old homestead. So a maple it was.
I've nurtured my tree along - I talk to it, try to remember to water it, take pictures - its first foliage, first snow fall, etc. It's still many years from majestic but it grows ever larger.
And now - a new first! My tree has its first nest - happy day! I hadn't even realized it was hidden in the branches until a neighbor spotted it.
What's even cooler about this nest is what it's made with. Weeks ago I pulled into the driveway at the end of the day and saw a couple of paper towel sheets that had blown onto my lawn (don't get me started about litterbugs!). I was just about to go over and grab them when I saw a bird - a robin I think - trying to pull one of the sheets in its beak. It was no match for the large sheet.
When the bird flew away I ripped the towels into six streamers. The next morning I was tickled to see them all gone.
And here are the strips - woven into this bird's creation. How cool is that? Aren't birds' nests amazing?
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