A Nest Full
We came home from our ‘summer vacation’ to find that our feathered and furry friends had taken a few more liberties with the property. Making their appearance were yet another swallow’s nest (for a grand total of six) and a half dozen new mole hills (now in full view of our front door.)
The nests are full of babies in various degrees of maturity – some overflowing their boundaries and oh so ready to fly. Parent swallows tweet and chirp at them but I’m not sure if they are encouraging or warning them concerning the joys/pitfalls of independence. Four of the nests are tucked in behind the house, out of sight except to those of us using the kitchen door. When we have the temerity to do so, of course, there is a cacophony of objection from the chorus above us. Cheeky little critters, those swallows!
Mole Hills on the March
The eggs in the nest on our front porch have still not hatched. I wonder if they ever will. Mr. and Mrs. have yet to accept that we come and go periodically and are, at this late date, no threat to their well-being. They remember all too well that we wouldn’t allow them to build at their first-choice location a few feet away and they continue to fly off as soon as we appear. I don’t know that the eggs are getting enough parental coverage to come to final fruition.
Meanwhile… the moles (or is it just one?) who have been ravishing our east lawn and erstwhile ‘croquet court’ for the last several years have moved to the south garden. Not to the lawn, mind you, but to the flower beds. All along the edges are lovely piles of dirt, obliterating the landscaping bark I so laboriously installed before we left on our road trip.
We have heard every conceivable ‘tried-and-true’ method of discouraging these furtive invaders but we lack the stamina and persistence to make their extermination a lifestyle. Live and let live, I say. Right now, our garden seems a metaphor for our world in general. Best to accommodate where we can and choose our battles with care. As in the Slug Wars…
I bought solar mole spikes either at Dennis Company or Fred Meyer several years ago (when Dave was in AZ) and they still seem to be keeping the moles at bay. The battery operated ones are bad because you can forget where you put them and possibly run over them with the mower. Mine are under trees and in flower beds. One time I bought an owl statue at Dennis Company to “keep the birds away” and arrived in Ilwaco to find a bird sitting on it’s head. That was no bird brain.