Nature in the City

Sitting on my front porch this afternoon grading papers, I took great joy watching a silly bird trying to build a nest in three different places. From looking it up, I would guess that it's a Carolina Wren. But it could be any kind of wren. It has a loud, musical call and did not seem to mind flitting closer and closer to me.

We have two Black-Eyed Susan hanging plants on the front porch and Earl recently attached a bird house to a nearby tree.

This little bird, with a sharp beak and long tail, flew into both plants carrying sticks and leaves. He also stuck his head into the bird house and looked all around before discarding that idea. Luckily, for the black-capped chickadee, who actually went in the birdhouse to see if he could fit. He's a little chubbier.
The weather, at 81 degrees, is perfect and in the garden along the front of the house below me, I could see peeks of pink zinnias and purple asters along with a strand of purple delphinium.

The colors and the birds helped make the afternoon of grading papers much more pleasant.

Later in the day, the cat realizes birds are building a nest on his front porch. He is quite perturbed.