phoebe mom

Every year a phoebe (see image at right) comes and builds a nest in our carport rafters.

She was mentioned by the previous owners in a note they left for us (along with "Chippy the Chipmunk," whom Snoggy messily devoured sometime within the first month of living here), and the rafters are liberally strewn with old nests, so she's been doing it a long time.

According to this page, phoebes live nine years, but there are a lot more nests than that, so either she's lived longer, or a second generation has continued the carport-nest custom.

Here's a photo of last year's babies just a day or two before they left the nest:


Anyway, every year, I see her building the nest and then I see her sitting on it, and then a week or two go by where we see her flying around catching bugs, but we don't see her on the nest at all. This worries me.

Loopy is familiar with this time period because I pester her a lot with questions like, "Mrs. Phoebe isn't on the nest, do you think we scared her off? Huh? Do you? Have you seen her on the nest lately? because I haven't seen her on the nest lately."

Loopy used to try to reason with me ("she's been building her nest here for years; I don't think she's going to be scared off by us getting in and out of the car") but after a while she gave up and resorted to noncommittal noises whenever I raised the important subject of Why Mrs. Phoebe Isn't On The Nest. (Smart woman, my Loopy)

Well, today I was talking to my Mom and shared my anxieties about the phoebe—and Mom had an explanation!

Apparently they lay eggs one at a time, and in between eggs they eat a lot so they can make another egg. They don't start sitting on the eggs until they're all laid! The eggs just sit there, cold and not developing, until the mom is done laying eggs and settles down to incubate them.

Isn't that amazing? I never knew that.

So Mom has saved Loopy from another two or three years of my pestering questions.

Although not from my pestering "Hey, Loopy, the phoebe's flying around catching stuff so she can go back and lay another egg! Cool, huh? Isn't that neat, Loopy? Hey, Loopy, isn't that neat?"

I don't know what you're thinking right now, but what I'm thinking is that I am so, so, so, so, so, lucky to be married.