Blackbird Singin' in the Dead of Night

If you've known me for any length of time, you are likely aware of how I feel about birds. They terrify me. For some girls, a snake is upsetting. For others, a spider is her undoing. For this girl, it's birds.

My mother and my brother strap on binoculars and go looking for them. They spend time and money on feeders, fancy foods, and squirrel baffles. Why anyone would want to attract birds--that's what baffles me.

At the end of last school year, a bird flew into my classroom. I opened the back door and left. Now, the beasts of the air have come a little closer to home. They have, in fact, come into my home--specifically into one of the vents in the back of my house.

Friday night I was in the laundry room when I heard the tell-tale "chirpy chirpy chirpy" (to use a phrase coined by my friend Laura). I figured they were in the dryer vent and, while revolted, I figured they wouldn't be there long. There were some unpleasant moments for the mama bird and me on Saturday as I was planting flowers in boxes on the deck and as she sat in a nearby tree squawking her dismay. Still, as long as they stayed out there and moved away soon, I was not super-worried.

Until the stench. When I went downstairs on Sunday morning, it hit me like a fist in the nose. I searched the house for its source, emptying trash cans, sweeping floors, only to find it emanating from my empty powder room.

The upside of the bird saga is this--crisis brings people together (crisis might be a little strong for some, but this is me and birds we're talking about). Yesterday morning, worried the stench was the result of something dead in the wall between my house and the neighbors', I was able to talk to my neighbors at-length. In fact, it was one of the neighbors who deduced the birds were nesting in the powder room vent, not the dryer vent. My other neighbor has offered to get me a ladder when the time for nest-extraction comes.

I've lived in this house for six years and it is strange to me that I don't know much about my neighbors. I don't even know the one guy's name! So while I'm less-than-enthusiastic about my unwanted tenants, I am happy to have reasons to talk to the neighbors.