There’s a dark-eyed junco mom who has made a nest and laid her eggs in one of the hanging baskets on my back porch.  They are ground nesters who find a mass of vegetation (such as the flowers in your hanging basket) ideal terrain.  If my husband didn’t notice her, those eggs would have been drowned, and mom might have gotten low key rekt from the hose as well.

Other stressors in the neighborhood include a driveway being torn up and replaced like twelve feet away this weekend, and people setting off fireworks every night from about June 1st to July 30th.  The basket hanging from a chain may have shock absorption qualities, but still.

There’s also us.  We have to walk past that nest, within a few feet of it, every time we want to do something behind the house.  If she notices she’s getting noticed, she abandons the nest for a while, and eventually comes back.

Lastly, there are other birds that peck around those baskets.  I doubt a chickadee or wren would be too dangerous, but a scrub jay or stellers jay would totally eat those eggs.  They tend toward the baskets closer to the outer edge of the awning, and are more drawn to ones with coconut core they can loot for nesting material of their own, so likely to miss our sneaky lil gal.

I’m annoyed she’s imposed on us in this way, made us have to be concerned about her.  Also, she’s impossible to look at, because she’s so well hidden in there.  On a bright day you can see a specular highlight on her peepers and a pale beak, deep in the leaves.  But if you see her that well, she’s likely to get nervous and jet, so we don’t really get a nice birdwatching experience out of the deal.

Anyway, if you have potted plants outside your home, watch out for nests.

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