Peace and quiet of the doll house has been interrupted by Spring.
The nap I was taking on the couch after yesterday’s aqua fit class was interrupted by a loud chirping. A bird had landed on the patio rails and was chirping away. After chasing it away, I lay back down but was roused once again by loud chirping coming from a nearby tree. I lay on the couch, listened and watched as that chirping attracted yet another bird who began to chirp, then another and another. “OMG!!” thought I, it’s spring, we’ve got all these trees, there’s going to be chirping all season long and there is not a damn thing I can do about it.
Birds would show up like clockwork at the senior complex I lived in before I relocated to Long Beach. I’d not be aware until the weekends when I was home from work. I’d hear chirping, look out the window and see the beginnings of a nest in the spaces below the patio/roof overhang.
Birds are dirty little creatures. They’re loud, noisy and leave gross droppings, so I’d get up, grab my grabber pull out the twig and other material beginnings of a nest, and I’d have to do it every weekend. It was fairly gross, but not as gross as noisy birds, baby birds, worms and the other awful things that would have resulted in a nest.
Once I didn’t catch the nest until it was completely done and saw the female bird beginning to make herself comfortable. I quickly chased her out before she could lay eggs, demolished the nest and was amused to see what I assumed to be the male bird have a hissy fit when he returned and saw the nest was gone. Seriously. That bird started chirping so fast and furious that it was obviously his way of expressing anger and dismay. Other birds came to see what the hubbub was all about and I actually began to think my life might be in danger if the birds were to recognize me if caught outside the safety of the apartment.
At that point, I mental telepathy spoke to the birds that I was not going to allow them to destroy my peace and quiet, it was getting late in the nesting season so they’d better hurry up and go build somewhere else.
Would I have destroyed the nest if the birds had already lay eggs? No, but I would have called apartment maintenance to move the nest elsewhere.
At any rate, to make sure the birds did not try again, I started researching what I could stuff into the areas the birds were trying to nest that was impassible but wouldn’t hurt them. I ended up stuffing the openings with screen door netting. After that, spring after spring, I’d see birds come; they’d view the area, see it wasn’t passable, then leave. I could still hear them chirping in the area as they nested nearby, but it wasn’t annoying because it wasn’t directly in my ears …. like it is now.
Chirping in the trees by my bedroom and living room windows began shortly after I awoke this morning at 6 a.m. Chirping has been steady going on ever since and, like I said, there is not a damn thing I can do about it this time around.
I could go get one of those water bomb guns, sit on the patio and chase the birds out of the trees, but there are neighbors … eyes everywhere and there are things one doesn’t want neighbors to see. Know what I mean?
