Nesting

It’s summertime and my girls are in love with the birds. As we drive off to pricey outings all they really want to do is point out Meadowlarks and Robins and try to make bird sounds. So I decide that we would dedicate one afternoon to staying home and bird watching. The girls are super excited to discover a giant birds nest in one of our trees.

They want to know how the birds made that nest. We consult their book on local birds and discover that birds pick up everything from twigs, grass, leaves, and mud to trash. “Litter! Oh no! The birds have our litter in their houses!” the girls cry. They ask me if we can make a birds nest. Why not.

I tell them to start by gathering what a bird would gather to make a nest. They consult one another and strategize, “Abby you get the twigs and I’ll get the leaves,” Briana suggests. “No, let’s both get whatever is green, leaves and grass, first, then get the twigs,” Abby amends. Briana likes division of labor so she counters, “How about I get grass and you get leaves and then we both get twigs?” Abby agrees to the new terms and they climb off the deck and go searching.

I swear that days exist where my kids are not in pjs in the backyard! We just happen to do blogworthy things when we are relaxing and that tends to mean pjs. J Anyway, the girls tweet while they search for twigs, mud, leaves, and tiny bits of trash.

They assemble the supplies on their outdoor table.

Pieces that seem too big get broken up to be small enough for a Momma bird to carry.

Then the girls survey their birds nest and realize that something is wrong. “Uh, Mom. Our nest won’t stay together,” Briana points out.

I tell the kids that the birds have a special way of weaving everything together. We talk about what might work best. “Maybe if we braid the twigs.” It turns out, the twigs don’t braid very well. Neither do the leaves. The grass, does but it’s not strong enough to hold the twigs (or more likely the preschooler’s pulling, but the kids blame the twigs weight). I bail them and tell them that the birds weave everything together to make a strong nest and that they stick it together with lots of mud, spiderwebs, and their own spit. My girls are happy to get messy, but neither wants to spit in their nest. I’m happy to oblige.

In case you’re wondering why I didn’t just tell them right away, it’s because the answer is never nearly as interesting or memorable told as it is after experimentation.

“Can we get some mud instead?” Briana asks. Both girls are thrilled at the idea of digging in the mud. They quickly discover that mulch is easier to get off of the ground and over to their pile and they dig up a bunch of mulch.

Abby decides that the birds want their nest to smell so yummy so she pulls the thyme that they are actively removing the mulch from around and adds some to the pile.

I tell the kids that some birds do add herbs to make their nests smell nice and also because some herbs may protect them from predators by masking their smell or work as antibiotics to help the birds stay healthy.

We assemble the pieces and then we make our nest glue. Mix a quarter cup of cornstarch and half a cup of water. Stir. It should be really runny and if it’s not, add a little more water.

We pour the “glue” onto the nest materials and mix it around to make sure that everything is lightly coated.

Then we pour more on because, well, they are preschoolers and nothing beats making a mud pie.

We add the mulch and have a great nest, ready to be shaped and left to dry.

We add a rock into the center so that as our nest dries it will leave an indentation for the birds. 

(Note: The nest takes about 2 days to dry. After about an hour, take the rock out. The indentation will stay. Otherwise the rock will fuse with the nest and you won’t be able to get it out easily without destroying the nest. Also, put the nest on a paper towel or paper plate so that it doesn’t stick to your table. After a day you may want to move it like I did to make sure it isn't sticking and to help the bottom dry.)

We talk about how difficult it must be for the tiny Momma bird to carry all of those twigs, mud, and other supplies to make the nest, especially considering that she didn’t have sisters to help or a table to rest everything on while it hardened. Recently my girls have really become empathetic to other people and animals and things around them. Everything is "the poor little kitty in the backyard. We have to feed him"and stuff like that. It’s good to reinforce this and I try to do so by having the girls think through all of the logistics of searching for sticks and carrying them so far, etc. We talk about it.

Then it starts to rain. The kids squeal, “Our nest!” We talk about how devastated the Momma bird would be if it rains while she is making her nest and threatens to destroy her home "for her little babies who will just have no where to go if it rains". The girls decide that we will give our nest to a Momma bird so that she will have a backup house in case that happens to her.

Two days later (about an hour before we washed up and I sat down to write this blog) we check on our nest. Even with the downpour a few days ago, the nest has dried nicely.

The girls really want to give the nest to the birds, but of course every bird they approach with their present gets scared and flies off. When they are tired from chasing birds they agree to leave the nest on the edge of the deck and see if any birds move in.

Summer is for the birds!

<3 Pedigreed Housewife