Where the birdies is

Yesterday in the early evening and this morning, I was sitting on the couch reading. I kept thinking I saw some fluttering, but when I looked up, I wouldn't see anything. Finally, I saw a robin with a lot of grass clippings in his beak. He seemed to be going to the upper deck, so I went upstairs, but saw no nest, so I figured he was nesting in our pin oak tree. But later I went to look at my own plants and discovered the beginnings of a nest on this drainpipe under the floor of the upper deck:



In the center of this picture is the householder. Click on the picture to see it larger. (Use the "Back" button on your browser to come back to this page.) Besides showing the robin, it also shows how gray the sky was today.

Later in the afternoon, the nest was quite a bit larger:

I'm interested in watching the process, although I'm concerned that when I water and move my potted plants I'll disturb the birds and possibly make them abandon the nest. I'm also concerned that cats could fairly easily get to this nest. We get a lot of cats in our yard, trying to catch the birds at our feeders and bird bath. They would just have to climb the posts of the deck and reach out, or even see if the drainpipe could support their weight.

My dad is disgusted by the idea that the birds will make a mess on the lower deck. I don't mind. After they leave, we can clean it off and get rid of it. I'd like to see the baby birds hatch and grow. We'll see what happens.