Yesterday was Mother's Day, but the bird that has built a nest in the eaves adjacent to the front door of the cabin had a nerve-wracking day of it.

Your Scribe was at the cabin - raking, planting, catching my limit of (wretched) yellow perch. One reality: I have to enter and leave the cabin itself to make the day work.

This bird was evidently protecting her eggs, because she was very wary of my presence. Once, totally unnerved, she flew from the nest but returned quickly. (Maybe she was repulsed that I was fertilizing my bittersweet, a much disliked vine among some who love the outdoors).

I didn't check the nest for chicks. Perhaps they aren't yet ready to enter the world of Cabin Country.

I think the bird was a woodpecker. (There are a lot of dead trees there). My land has more woodpeckers than any other kind specifies and the horizontal black and white stripes appear on several woodpeckers in my bird book. Plus, I saw several woodpeckers that looked like this one on the walk to the river.

I must bone up on my gestation rates among birds. Certainly Mom is not going to hang around a day more than she has to after the chicks are ready to leave.

And I can't imagine her coming back to this cabin again next spring.

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