Birdies.

[rimturse]

There's a pair of swallows considering building a nest on our south-facing wall right outside my office window on the 1st floor. There was a nest there when we first moved in, but last year they preferred the barn. I'm not sure how smart it is to nest outside the office, especially since the cats use the 1st floor balcony daily. The swallows don't seem to pay any attention to the cats though, so either they're extremely self-confident or they're stupid.

hehe, my mother is going to have a fit! We've had these conversations since I was 1 year old and just learning to speak:

Toddler May: "Look! Darlings! Little darlings!"
Mother: "SSStarlings. SSSSS-. Oh no, birdshit on the balcony!" *shoos birds away*

Later:
Child May: "Come look at the blackbird in the garage!"
Mother: "Oh no! It's building a nest! There will be birdshit everywere." *removes unfinished nest"

Even Later:
Mother: "Oh no, you have nesting birds here! Look at all the birdshit! You have to get rid of them."
Adult May: "The birds are staying. Apart from the mess, they're not ruining anything."
Mother: "But look at all the shit!"
Adult May: "The birds are staying."

My mother is actually not as cold hearted as it seems. She won't admit it, but I've noticed that should the blackbirds in her garden win the build-nest-and-lay-eggs race, she'll leave the nest alone until the hatchling are ready to leave, although it's not done without a certain amount of mumbling, grumbling and cleaning. *grin*

Comments

[thewriterindenmark.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

I remember such scene from my childhood. I love cats and my mom is anti-cats. *sigh* I end up never having the chance of owning a cat. Now my bf is cat allergic thats why we have birds instead, not that I'm complaining about my budgies :)

[frigg.livejournal.com]

Aww you have to come visit me to get a healthy dose of cat. :)

My mother was also against all pets, but finally compromised and bought me a budgie. Later the guinea pig the neighbour had bought for his daughter turned out to be pregnant and once they were old enough, he sneakily put all the babies in a nice giftwrapped box (with plenty of holes) and gave them away to the neighbourhood kids - without informing the parents. My dad laughed at it, but my mother was furious. Still, I ended up with my very own guinea pig.