Bird’s nest is a surprise windfall

An old bird’s nest found on the lawn – and placed on a paper towel

As I was sweeping up the fallen leaves from our sweetgum tree (Liquidambar styraciflua) the other day I found this old nest. I assume it must have been in the tree until the recent strong winds.

I put it on a kitchen towel and took it to show my husband, who immediately flinched in disgust thinking it was a dead rat! I admit it was a bit messy and at first glance I thought it was a dead something, too. But even that would attract my interest rather than repelling me…

Sweetgum leaves – where they overlap each other they have an effect on the autumn colour that comes through on the leaf underneath

Fallen leaves on the lawn

But back to the nest, which was quite small – too small for a blackbird and anyway I have seen a blackbird’s nest and it is very different.

A closer look at the nest

The outside of the nest is covered in moss…

…the inside is lined with white fluff

For a possible answer I turned to the Discover Wildlife website and a page on how to identify garden bird nests. It is an interesting read.

From this I decided the nest is probably that of a dunnock or hedge sparrow (Prunella modularis) and these are ever present in our garden.

A dunnock in our garden

The nest is described as 6cm with a small, relatively flat cup and a foundation of twigs. It is lined with moss, wool, hair and feathers.

Here is the image from the Discover Wildlife page…

Image of a dunnock’s nest

Little discoveries like these are treasures in my mundane life…

Advertisement