Side Bird

From The Pataphysician

Artwork by Gail Bradshaw

This is the second short “bird” piece, Side Bird. We have a hummingbird feeder hanging in a large cotoneaster at the south side of the house. It is rapidly drained of its nectar because Side Bird is actually a small nuclear family of three birds, a small male, and two females, who spent last Summer soaring together through the warm winds blowing in off the Saanich Inlet and survived the cold Winter with the help of heat from their own string of ancient Christmas lights. A few weeks ago, the smaller and likely younger female built a beautiful nest in a very precarious location, near the end of a long, slim cotoneaster branch. The nest is made of moss woven with spider web and decorated with green patches of lichen. One night a huge south east wind blew her entire branch up around the corner of the house where it caught on the down pipe, the nest tilted on its side, the two jelly bean sized white eggs nearly falling to the ground. We were able to free the branch, save the nest and the eggs, and perform some retro engineering to the cotoneaster with several velcro strips. Now the mother to be is dry and secure under the overhanging roof and yesterday survived yet another hours long blast of cold wind and rain smashing its way up from the Strait of Juan de Fuca and across the Saanich Peninsula to our home on the edge of Coal Point. Soon the eggs will hatch and our flock of tiny brave birds will grow, to swoop and soar and peek in our window at dinnertime. In a few more days, it will be warm enough to introduce our Mason bees to their new handmade home in the small orchard. Birds and bees! It is Spring.