Homewrecker

Recently, I began noticing these two bird hanging at various places on my deck.

I also began seeing lots more of this. It's almost time for a deck power wash.

Finally, this morning, it occurred to me that my now almost-daily sightings of this couple were not coincidental with the good fortune of these birds liking how I stained my deck.

I remember my upstairs neighbor telling me that last spring, birds built a nest under his grill, and before they were able to remove it, they noticed eggs in the nest. They begrudgingly allowed for the birds to come and go and poop all over the place until the eggs hatched.

Checking under the deck furniture and the grill, I saw nothing that resembled a nest. Just more poop and feathers, and...actual lovebirds themselves.

They pranced out from under the deck sofa, and walked to the edge of the deck. I tried to shoo them away, and they flapped over to the other side of the deck. I shooed them up to the railing, then finally up to the roof of my neighbor's house.

They really didn't want to leave, I'm thinking. What am I missing?

Then I saw it. Behind my AC blower unit, in the very corner against the house....the nest.

It didn't look much like a well-groomed robin's nest, perched high in the treetops. This was a ragtag flat nest of straw, twigs, and city debris. Perhaps these birds were better street cleaners than the City of Boston's sweeping machines?

I looked in the nest and did not see any eggs. I might have found it just in time.

As the birds looked on from above, I took my outdoor broom and swept the nest off my deck. Down it went, all the way to the concrete.

I don't know much about avian biology or behavior patterns, but I would imagine that some species are creatures of habit. Perhaps they were the same couple who called the deck on Unit #3 home last year.

I felt a twinge bad for the birds as they watched me, mean homeowner, destroy the nest that they, the squatters, were crafting on my property. Call me Hurricane Jason, but I would rather not have them as deckmates for a few months this year, especially with Rosie around now, who loves lunging at and chasing birds, and would have probably figured out a way into their no-longer nest.