I’ve been in my cottage on the farm for less than a month, and nature is clearly at work. First, the sad news: my little bird family is gone. “Nature, red in tooth and claw” was in evidence, as the farm cats found the nest and appear to have reached in and dispatched the two cheeping chicks. Whether they got the parents, too, I don’t know, but I suspect the parents abandoned the nest afterward.
My initial reaction was anger at the cats. I’m not a cat person, anyway, and I wish the cats would just hunt vermin and not cute baby birds. However, in fairness, the wrens were not wise to select a nesting hole that’s within reach of cats. So, natural selection was at work, and these not-so-survival-minded wrens failed to pass on their genes this year.
On the positive front, I have another bird family now: woodpeckers. It sounds like someone knocking on the door Read the rest of this entry »
