Show and Tell

PBS recently ran a series on "Nature" regarding the home-building habits of a number of birds and animals.  I have my own Nature series right here.  The wind that came with the rain this weekend brought down this old bushtit nest.  I find it fascinating.  These tiny birds weave a swinging hammock or cradle with bits from a shredded blue tarp and orange threads torn from baling twine, adding a few twigs here and there for stability.  It is lined with fluff and down and some Poppy wool.  The cradles are hung out at the tip of the smallest branches so the babies get rocked to sleep to the song of the wind.

Someday I'm going to ask my grandson Jake what he thought of the packages I'd send him when he was in elementary school.  Being a city kid, he probably didn't know what to make of the squirrel nest made of shredded bark I found in the woodpile or the big molar from Louie, the pig.  I sent them so he'd have something for Show-and-Tell and he could one-up the others.  In truth, he probably thought his Grandma had slipped a cog.

In true pack rat tradition, I've always picked up bits and bobs of this and that.  I've kept the mud nest built by the barn swallows and pretty feathers from the roosters or wild birds, rocks with odd shapes or colors, and who knows what else.  I suppose it could be worse.