Like a lot of people, every year we'll get a Turdus migratorious nest or two close to the house over the season...I love that they're tolerant and resilient...and I love how perfect their nests are...I've had the opportunity to show my kid the complete cycle from nest building to fledging....not so keen that their success is a strong indicator of habitat manipulation and that they're skewing avian diversity....but I get excited nonetheless when I find a nest....so far this year, I have a pair nesting for the first time in a lilac topiary in front of my living room window....my wife had the topiary (aged about 30 or 40 years at the time) a few years back and it's been fighting a losing struggle ever since....I figure it'll be a year or two before I say enough is enough and have it yanked but this year T. migratorius has given it a reprieve...anyway...last week the first egg appeared....and then disappeared overnight...I wondered if they'd continue laying and a few days later another first egg appeared....and a few days later a second egg appeared...and today we're back to one egg....wondering how resilient she'll be and WHO takes an egg the size of a robins egg??? there are no shells on the rocks below and none in the nest....no signs of predation....do cowbirds parasitize T. migratorious nests?
