June 26, 2006
empty nest syndrome
The Bush Tit family has vacated. It all happened so quickly. One minute they're rushing to and from the "sock", feeding each other and the kids and the next they're gone. For weeks the hanging sock was a hive of activity, and it frequently vibrated the Ceanothus branch it was attached to, the leaves shivering and the sock rocking with whatever happens inside a cramped tube nest with a family of four. A few days ago the front yard was filled with the fever pitch of anxious parents and fledglings who emerged from the sock hole all at once - so tiny I could barely see them clinging to the top of the sock. By the end of the day they were all gone. I could hear them twittering in the dense canopy around the house but the sock nest hung limp and empty. I went out to peer in the front door of the sock. I felt bereft. My babies were grown up and gone. I had empty nest syndrome.
I too suffered from ENS. Though I wish I knew what my bird family was. Need to take that Audobon Birding class at the local adult school. But it is a lovely cone shaped nest in the angle of branches of a sour gum tree that the City of Berkeley planted in the sidewalk strip. A few weeks of feverish activity and one day, no more. I look up and check the nest when I get into my car, hoping it will be used again by a new renter. But everyday with no mother to tend it, it has begun to succomb to the vagaries of wind and weather.
Posted by: yuriko on July 3, 2006 6:37 PMI found a small nest with nothing but a round peice of dirt in it. What is this, what kind of bird. Any info would be greatly apreciated.
Posted by: Zack on May 1, 2007 9:18 PM