I like birds.  Yes, I like chicken and turkey and quail and pheasant, but I also like the birds that never visit on Thanksgiving.  St. Joseph, Missouri, is located on the migratory trail of many of the mid west traveling birds.  My home is particularly inviting to summer nesting.  There are many varieties of plants and support structures for bird nesting.

Many of my trees are sculpted.  That means simply that I manipulated the young and impressionable branches to alter their normal growth patterns.  My purpose was simply to study the growth of the trees in abnormal circumstances.  The tree branches are forced to grow in unnatural patterns.  My observation is that nature corrects itself.  The trees do not complain about life difficulties – they simply adjust and make the most of their situation.  And the birds like the result.

One can see the result of the tree sculpting – the branches are interwoven. The top of the spiral creates a perfect place for a turtle dove to build a home for her family.

Robins are equally interested in a safe home for their children – All of the newly hatched birds around my house are home schooled so they require a safe nest.

This mother Robin found a safe and secure nesting opportunity on the security lights mounted on my garage.   The nest is under the eve of the garage roof – well protected from the weather.

Our Cardinals are being less cooperative with posing for portraits.  Their next is buried deep in a climbing rose bush that has found a friend in the downspout from the house rain gutters.  The nest was exposed enough to get a picture but in order to get close enough the Cardinal mother exited.

We enjoy our summer visitors. We share our home and our food with them. We suffer the heat and the wind and the rain together. Unlike we humans – these birds have enough sense to skedaddle in the winter.