“Battle with the Birds”

August 9, 2019 by  
Filed under Faith, Faith Articles

By Dianne E. Butts –

A family of birds is trying to build a nest underneath our second-story deck. We’ve had nests built there before. We wouldn’t mind it so much if the birds were better house guests. But their, eh-hem, “droppings” run down the windows of the basement-level family room and mud and sticks litter the porch. And they are not quiet neighbors.

All this meant my husband took on the challenge this year of discouraging them from build a nest underneath our deck. Turns out, just knocking their nest down once or twice was not going to be near enough to discourage them from building there.

My husband has been knocking their nest-building down and sweeping it off our porch, several times a day for at least a week. Every time he does, he gets scolded by that Father bird.

We have an odd board jutting across the bottom of the deck at an angle. I guess Mr. and Mrs. Bird think this is the perfect platform to put their nest on. Tucked up high, next to the house. A nicely protected location. After knocking it down numerous times, we finally found a garden gnome to set in its place. Problem solved, right? Nope. The Birds just moved down the board and started building again in the next open slot. Just as high, now not against the house, but apparently the second best location.

I raided the shed and we ended up setting all my little fake garden friends (a frog, squirrel, angel, two gophers (one with sunglasses), a rabbit) and several plastic pots along the rest of the board. The Birds keep building on top of the frog. Beside the gnome. Around the newspaper I wadded and stuffed up there to take up the space.

Persistent little creatures, aren’t they?!

I’ll admit it. At first I felt sorry for the Birds. Would they find another place to build and raise their young? I don’t feel sorry so much for them anymore. They have the whole wide world to build their nest in. Why are they so darned insistent in building it under our deck?

I put a nice, solid basket in the backyard aspen tree. It fits perfectly between branches. I put some of their nestings in it. A perfect place for a bird nest if you ask me. But no, they don’t go near it.

I keep wondering isn’t Mrs. Bird getting desperate to lay her eggs? How long can they keep putting off finding a place to build their nest where it will remain intact? Seems like she’d start nagging Mr. Bird by now about finding another location.

But persistent Mr. Bird just keeps building. So here we are still knocking down their efforts several times a day.

Mr. Bird is determined to build Mrs. Bird their dream home under our deck. My husband is just as determined that he will not. I’m betting on my husband to win the battle.

Isn’t it nice to know we have a Father Who is every bit as persistent in pursuing us?

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6:26, NIV)

About Dianne Butts

Dianne has written for over 50 Christian print magazines and contributed to nineteen books. She is the author of Deliver Me: Hope, Help, & Healing through True Stories of Unplanned Pregnancy. Her work has been published in Great Britain, Bulgaria, Poland, Canada, and Korea. When she’s not writing, she enjoys riding her motorcycle with her husband, Hal, and gardening with her cat, P.C. in Colorado. www.DeliverMeBook.com www.DeliverMeBook.blogspot.com www.DianneEButts.com
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