Tazmeena has her Place back
back to look more at the Oriole nest
the string is from feed bags. They have horses.
the entire bottom has this blue and white plastic woven in. not sure what that's from. I'll find out.
inside, some maybe decorative pieces, or, maybe Educational pieces...that just dawned on me. Bits of the Cottonwood seed blooms, bits of dried Cottonwood leaves. Could it be?, to inform the new ones of which tree to look for. Orioles nest here in Cottonwoods. and suddenly, when i was looking at this pic i Knew what the center layer is. Until just this moment, i was wondering what the soft layer is that is between the first and outer Weave of horsehair. i wondered if it was dog hair, but no. and then, they have llamas. Maybe undercoat of llama?, but that seemed unlikely. But when i wondered the above, about if the small decorations inside were to Educate the new ones, suddenly i Knew. It is the "fluff", the "cotton" that bursts from the seed pods of the tree and for a short time fills the skies with floating drifting "cotton fairies". How Brilliant! How just surreal. There is close to an eight of an inch of this fiber between the horsehair weaves. It is very soft and very much like wool.
The nests are used again and again by mating pairs that Winter elsewhere and return each spring. Unless, as in this case, WIND brings them down. And then, a new nest must be built. But if the old nest remains, it is inspected closely, reinforced and used again. I keep thinking how this nest was woven with a Beak. a Beak of a bird. Fiber by fiber. Seed fluff by seed fluff. I would give almost Anything to watch this. Maybe sometime i can. They return year after year to the large old Cottonwood at Bill and Nelia's. Maybe someday i can have the kind of life that would allow me to just go sit there. Wait for their return, and watch. Watch her bring the horsehair, a strand at a time. Weave. with her beak.
