things that make me smile: new pets (sort of)

For the last few weeks I've been awoken multiple mornings by loud, incessant chirping. Every spring, birds build a nest in the tree near my patio, but every time I went out to look for the cause of the incessant chirping, it was empty.

I was totally perplexed... until yesterday, when I finally decided to go cut back my totally overgrown jasmine vines wrapping around and now growing over the top of my patio's pergola posts.

I started cutting away with my pruning shears from the top down and then stopped in my tracks. Some crazy birds built a nest IN the jasmine vines! Now the jasmine has been there for years and some vines have thickened into tiny branches, but it's still not something strong enough I'd trust my kids to. But I guess when you've got the protective personalities of this Mama and Papa bird, maybe the camouflage outranked weight requirements.

Here's a shot of the two very loud babies in the nest today, who were smart enough to basically bury themselves in the bottom of the nest when I was pruning and first saw them yesterday:

And here's a close up shot of the bigger of the two, snapped literally 10 seconds before Mama and Papa bird coordinated a dive-bomb attack towards my head from my roof where they were keeping a watchful eye on the nest. (I told you they were protective!).

I just took a dish of bird seed out there to make peace (I hope...). Based on a quick google search based on how the adults and babies look, and then reading about defensive parental nature, I've decided these are a family of Northern Mockingbirds. If there are any trained bird watchers out there who know for sure, let me know :)