The light fixture that hangs in the front porch over the door is old and has one of the glass panels missing.  There are three sockets, one of which is empty and the other two which hold energy-saving bulbs.  The porch light is supposed to come on automatically at dusk, but the thing that makes that happen stopped working a long time ago, so it is on just about all the time now.

A few weeks ago when I walked out the door, something swooped out of the light and past my head.  I thought it was a bat, but discovered that birds were building a nest there.  With the one open socket, the location, and the light always on, I figured this was probably not the healthiest place to start nesting, so I reached in and dismantled it before they could really get anything started, hoping they would choose to move under a soffit or into one of the hanging plants.

But those birds were persistent, and no sooner had I removed those bits and branches before they were at it again.  It was hard to tell what they were because they would startle and dart away before I could get a good look at them. I thought they might be phoebes, since we have had phoebes nesting in the linden tree outside the front door for years.  Usually the phoebe will dart away onto a neighboring branch and wait there, bobbing its tail.  But the phoebe is not here this year.

A few days later and independent of my efforts, the S.O. also noticed them and decided it was not the best of locations either.  He reached in to remove the nest and ended up breaking an egg.  Awww, gee.  So there it was, too late to take the nest apart. With no going back now, we decided to leave it and whoever might be left inside to see how they fare.

There is still a bird (or birds) startling out of there at warp speed, but from what I could see from peeking through the sidelight window, it appears they are sparrows. I wasn’t sure if any of the other eggs had made it, until this past week when the porch directly in front of the door started to pile up with bird turd.

Not only are the bird turds all over the porch, but they appear to be copiously filling and spilling out of the porch light (if you go back and look at the porch light picture above, you will notice the turds, if you hadn’t before).  At this point there is really not much to be done about it, so I go out there every day and clean it up so the mailman (or anyone else) doesn’t step in it.  It’s pretty stubborn stuff.

Today I dragged a chair out there and climbed up to look inside.  This is what I found:

There appears to be three of them and it seems like they are starting to mature.  I suppose it won’t be long until they leave.  In the meantime, it’s heads up!  Watch where you step!  And don’t stand under the light. : )

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