This decoration was suppose to be taken down a long time ago. It's from Christmas. Can you believe it? Recently it was acquisitioned by a bird. Every time we walk out the front door a small sparrow-sized bird bolts from this tin mail box. At Christmas I filled it with fake greenery, some Heavenly Bamboo berries and a garden plaque. I have been meaning to change the whole thing out...hang a basket there and fill it with some "summer" type dried flowers. But I just haven't . Now, it's too late.
Someone has taken up temporary residence and why they chose this place is beyond me. Every time we go in and out of the front door mama House Finch feels that she has to leave. We go in and out of this door at least a gazillion times a day and no matter how quiet we are about it we scare her off.
A few nights ago when I let the dogs out for the last time, after dark, she flew around the porch frantically and almost few in through the door into the house. She landed on the top edge of the open screen door and wouldn't move. I had to touch her feet to make her fly somewhere else, so I could close the screen door.
This happens every year. We have a pair of Linnets (that's what my mom use to call these house finches) that build a nest under the eaves and use it twice a year. They are on their second batch of eggs right now. But, their nest is across the porch and quite a distance from the front door. Instinct did not enlightened this new couple who built their nest in the mail tin. They were just not thinking about how close they were to the front door.
I feel awful every time we go out the door. We have no other way to access the garden and lawn area without going out the back door through the garage, out into the driveway area and back in through the front fence or around the back of the house. And, our sliding door doesn't have anything but a very high mini deck that was suppose to be temporary, to satisfy the county code enforcers, until we had the money for a REAL deck.... ,which NEVER happens because we keep spending money on other things like BEAUTIFUL OLD CARS. So, the front door is the only way to get to the front of the house without breaking our necks or trekking around the property. Can't do that with two Corgis in tow... in the dark.
It's seems that our porch is prime real estate for these birds... and now there is another egg in the nest since the other night. Good grief! Now they are going to all hatch into five more crazy little finches that will probably choose to build a nest and live on our porch. There will be generation after generations of these birds flocking here and building homes. When will it all end...
Update... Last night I tried not turning the porch light on when I let the dogs out. Momma Linnet few away when we stepped out onto the porch but she didn't fly around frantically in a panic. She flew over to the Mock Orange and waited until we went back into the house and then she flew back to her nest. This will have to do until she hatches those babies. Maybe the light was just too much for her. It seems better this way.
We have a light on the side of the garage that shines on the entrance so I do have enough light to see what the dogs are doing. It's a temporary inconvenience until the babies leave the nest.
