Monday, June 1, 2009

New Neighbor Dilemma

This morning, while we were eating breakfast, I noticed something new on our deck.


Ok, not on our deck, but rather right beside our back door and on our light.

The boys are thrilled with our new neighbors. We watched them for about 20 minutes working away. Carrying beak-fulls of grasses and carefully weaving it into a nest. It has started loads of questions and observations. And it is a beautiful sight.

You have to wonder though about this new bird family and their choice of real estate. If you were to draw a circle with a 200 foot radius from our backdoor, you would not find another child living in a house. And I may even be estimating conservatively.

Our yard is the noisiest, most active yard in this area of our neighborhood and these poor unsuspecting newly weds have chosen to live and raise their children here.

So, here is my dilemma. Do we let the birds continue to build and lay their eggs only to have them dive bomb us daily as we attempt to use our backyard retreat? Or worse, have them abandon the eggs due to unusual traffic? Or do we try to live in peace for the 12-14 day incubation period and then the 14-16 days before they fly away.

Maybe, if we are lucky, these two are seasoned urbanites who appreciate the fact that there are children in this yard playing and scaring away the magpies and crows.

I hope so. I don't the boys will let me send them packing.

5 comments:

Jennifer said...

Hope you are able to coexist. What a great thing to see happen.

Brandy said...

my parents had that happen on their deck with all us kids and some grand kids...LOL... they just wait til you go inside or off the deck... was pretty cool... let my parents take pics of the eggs and everything with out bugging my parents... have fun jo-ann!!

Sue said...

Let them be. We have a similar situation -- a reproduction 18th century "bird bottle" (yes, a ceramic bottle attached sideways under the upstairs addition). We have a small yard, always full of activity ... and it never bothers them.

The thing that bothers ME is:
1) the mess
2) OK, 2 things -- we have about 3 families per season, and dead baby birds are common. I always feel so bad (but that's me). I have to make sure Grace -- and the dog -- stays away. Just be prepared for some that don't make it.

Fun to watch, though! Have fun!

Mama J. said...

What a neat thing to happen!

Maybe you could just let the boys go about their business for the next few days and let the birds decide for themselves?

I hope they STAY!!

Heather said...

My parents had this happen a couple of times. The first set of birds was nutty and dive-bombed constantly, but the second couple could have cared less. Birds can pick the strangest places.
They will be fun to watch though and they probably know about the kids and are okay with it. Maybe the do feel a bit of protection from other predators by being there.