corvus
Posted : 7/5/2009 9:44:41 PM
I visited a friend one time to discover some idiot dove had gathered half a dozen sticks, tossed them haphazardly together on top of a pair of flip flops on an old freezer in the carport, and laid some eggs. I wouldn't say in the nest as it didn't really have an in, just kind of amongst the sticks. It was exceedingly ridiculous, and they had to keep warning people not to brush the sticks off. I seem to remember that the nest failed. I think the doves got upset by all the traffic by the 'nest' and abandoned it in favour of building another one inside an empty ice cream container on the ground in the laundry. Doves are not the brightest creatures, but that pair were particularly challenged.
I was often interested to see how young fairy-wrens tackled their first year of nesting. First nests usually failed, but they would refine their technique and usually got better as the season progressed. Nothing made me happier than seeing my heroic first year in the predator-ridden back territory finally get a brood of four to fledging at the end of the season and then sensibly kept them all in a bramble bush for the first week they were out. She is probably doing very well these days, but some birds never got the hang of it and continued to build ridiculous nests their whole lives. I knew one bird that built amazing nests, but as soon as the young fledged she'd take them for an epic journey all around the peripheries of the territory and when she showed up a week later she'd be lucky if she had one left. She was 9 years old, so she had no excuses. I'm getting all nostalgic, now. Nest-finding was the best job I've ever had.