This time of year, when I muck out the barn or feed the chickens, I look on the ground and when I see a circle of gray and white bird poop, then I look up.
There’s always a Swallows nest above the poop and sometimes, I get to see the baby birds peeking their heads out.
We have six or seven swallows nests in the barn (only one was taken over by Starlings) and I’ve found four dead baby birds, which I put in the tall weeds growing around the apple tree in the pasture.
I remember reading once that only one or two baby Robins survive to adulthood out of a nest of four or five. So even though I found four dead birds, I know many more have flown away.
And now there’s a new nest on the farm. I walk past the Tin Man(the sculpture made by Ed Gulley) a few times a day and often I reach out and shake his Rebar hand. It was only this afternoon that I saw the branches coming out of his sleeve.
I don’t know who put them there. I’m hoping it’s a bird and not a large rodent. But I don’t doubt that it’s someone looking to make the Tin Man their home.
I guess I’ll just keep an eye on it and see what happens…
