Our Feathered Friend

Some sort of little perching bird has made a home in the exposed insulation on our garage.  He moved in sometime around the start of winter.  Each morning he is waiting on the rafters for the garage door to be opened so he can start his morning commute.  I wonder where is goes to spend the daylight hours? Each evening as the sun is setting he tucks himself face first into the insulation. 

This weekend A. observed that the bird may have found a mate.  He was dancing around with an identical bird near the entrance to the garage while A. was shoveling snow, doing funny moves that reminded me of in the Disney movie Bambi when all the woodland critters are “twitterpated”.  A few minutes later they were both flying around the “insulation nook” (or as I dub it the Bachelor Pad) trying to both fit into it.  Later that night when we went in to close the garage doors, we realized the Bachelor Pad was vacant!

Male: I’ve got my own place, AND it has a door! A BIG one. (fluffs up back feathers and hops around in a semi-circle)
Female: I’d love to see it! (turns around and bobs head up and down, up and down)
(they fly into garage)
Male: Welcome…you just have to squeeze in…here…yeah, no wait…
Female: OW! I…I…move over! It’s kinda small.  Not really a place to start a nest.
Male: Er, um, well. There’s room to put on an extension behind that stud.
Female: But there’s poop in here.
Male: yeah, but it’s all dried up now.  A “fixer upper”!
Female: There is no way I am doing “you know what” in here.

The lovers were missing that night, and the next.  A. and I were stressing over who was going to break the news to G. about her bird, or whether we would just wait until she noticed he wasn’t there.  Would we tell her he just disappeared? That he had found his soul-mate and she convinced him to find a bigger, more practical nest egg? Would we tell her he had a change of heart and decided to fly south for the winter like Nona, who goes to Pompano Beach from January until the spring?

Lo and behold, last night he was back! And his partner has been loitering in the rafters.  We don’t know if they have broken up and she is trying to get him back or just seeking shelter from the cold, or if he’s sewn his seed and is done with her.  And why are we so convinced that he is a he anyway? We are just glad to have our bird back, and glad that we don’t have to explain his absence to a 3 year old.

(pic soon)