Thanks to the cacophony that is two cats discovering that a bird has decided to nest in the dryer vent, it occurred to me that I should check the shrub by the corner of our house for baby birds earlier this year than I have in prior years (and the year before that).
Before I move on to that, though, let me just tell you what Max keeps telling me. THERE IS SOMETHING IN THERE, HUMANS. RIGHT THERE. SOMETHING. AND IT'S CHIRPING. BEHIND THE DRYER. SOMETHING!!!!!
Now that you know how Max has spent every moment of his life for the past week, let me go back to those baby birds. I checked earlier than usual, which meant I caught this right after it happened.
Five little eggs in a tiny little nest in the exact spot they've been the past three years. Considering that I have photo-stalked them every year that the bush has been there, you'd think that the mother bird would have figured out by now that there are about a million better places for her nest. She hasn't, though, which I'm considering permission to stalk. Frequently.
It's not like she doesn't know who she's dealing with.
Every day since I discovered the eggs, I have ventured out to that shrub to check out what's happening. It took nearly two weeks, but finally I found this on Tuesday.
Sometime between Monday night and Tuesday morning, one egg disappeared and one bird hatched.
It took until Wednesday for that first baby bird to finally have company in the nest.
That's the second baby bird in the midst of being born and stuff.
Which, awesome.
Later in the day, it was joined by two other birds.
Or at least I assumed they were birds. They could have been hairballs that Max coughed up for all I knew.
By Thursday things were looking decidedly more birdish.
We'll just ignore the fact that the one bird is looking up and being all sorts of cranky because I walked in on it pooping. Seriously. I did. WHOOPS.
Today (Friday), things were a bit more peaceful and devoid of poop.
And now I will continue to stalk them daily because if you keep on building your nest by my house, you are granting me permission to do so.