Speed Racer as...Scarecrow?

We've had an interesting scenario playing out on our front porch the last few weeks. Initially, a robin built a nest on top of the column on our porch. Something happened and we found two robin eggs splattered on the ground one afternoon! (This actually proved to be an excellent lesson in the color "robin egg blue" for my kids!) Before we could take the nest down, the robin was back and laid more eggs. My kids got the biggest kick out of watching her. One morning, apparently after the eggs hatched, we got to watch "daddy bird" feed worms to "momma bird" who then fed them to "baby birdies!" Super cool to watch!

After a couple days, there was no sign of birds or babies - they flew the coupe!

We figured this was the end of our bird-saga. But, as the kids and I played outside in the front yard the next afternoon, there were a couple birds (not robins!) dive bombing us. Clearly, they felt we were invading THEIR space! So, I checked the nest and sure enough, they had remodeled it to fit their needs. Unfortunately, they added MUD to the nest and pooped all over the place! They made a huge mess! We hadn't appreciated just how kind and tidy our robin roommates had been until we saw this!

So, Saturday morning, Ed starts rummaging through the kids toys and reappears with "Speed Racer" - the perfect scarecrow he said! I laughed and thought there was no way this would work. He went outside and pulled down the nest - and in the process, cracked the egg inside! Oops...sorry messy birdies! He placed speed racer where the nest had been and came back inside. We stood at our front window watching the silly birds fly around our scarecrow, chirping wildly at him! This went on for hours! It was hilarious! But, it did actually work! Ed insisted that I say I WAS WRONG, HE WAS RIGHT. (Can you tell I'm not wrong very often??)

It now appears that our days of sharing our home with birds are finally over! It sure was fun while it lasted!