Baby birds

Using our front door has been a risky proposition for the last month or so. One day I noticed a bird fly out from the door when I opened it. I thought that was kind of strange, and then the next day Steve said he had noticed it, too. Turns out a momma bird had decided to build her nest in the Southern Living flower box on the door - apparently my purple silk flowers looked pretty real to her.

Once she laid her eggs, she got pretty defensive of them - she didn't just fly away when we opened the door, she would buzz your head on her way out. So, for the last month, we've been avoiding the door altogether. Our house sits on a partial basement with a pull-under garage, so that meant that every time we wanted to go outside (like going to the bus stop, getting the mail, going to friends' houses...you get the picture), we had to go down through the basement, out the garage, and back around to the front of the house. While we thought it was kind of neat that the momma chose our house for her home, I was cursing her after a few weeks (especially on the days I went grocery shopping and had to lug the groceries up through the basement). Although, it was kind of funny to see the look of terror on the neighbor boys' faces when they would be bent over, practically on their knees, ringing our doorbell.

Well I am happy to report that the eggs hatched (it was nice to hear chirping through the door), and it now appears that everyone has left the coop! You don't want to know what my door looks like behind the nest, but we sure are glad to have it back!