when birds bring gifts...

a small bird has been building a small nest at the house. it has been wonderful to watch it form over a few days, and also to see the mess the bird makes when making the nest, it looks as if the thing is in a constant state of flux, with twig matter all over the ground, as if the nest itself was constantly shedding.

yesterday, i was on the other side of the house and discovered this little bit of string on the ground. it is totally foreign in color, and clearly not a fragment of anything here. so i think it must be from these tiny nest makers, and i wonder if they bring it to the nest and find it is just a bit too colorful for their taste, and i wonder if perhaps they leave it on the ground in such a spot as a gift to me. as if they know i regularly walk with my eyes down, looking for things to pick up.

i remember once in paris, the day after a flea market, spending hours walking up and down this seemingly abandoned train station picking up snapshots from the 1930's, small old books, fragments, quite amazing.

in this case it was simply a thread from a cloth of some sort, and i imagine the bird taking some part of a cloth on a clothesline in his mouth, and pulling and flying to yank it from its place. for those short few seconds of struggle and pull, the bird and the cloth were held together by this small strand, as though it binds them to each other. making them one.

perhaps the bird then brought it back to the nest, and one of the other birds thinking it was a red worm, took it in their beak/mouth and for one short while now the two birds become one.

so now i find this gift they leave me on the ground, and i hold it in my hand, and i wonder if one of them will come to me and try to grab one end of this string, to see if for a few seconds we too can be two and one at the same time....

i should also mention that their chirping is quite high pitched and very wonderful.