At War with Robins {SOL 5-05-15}

For the past four years, I have been at war with a robin.

Yes....a robin.

On my front porch, I have an old ladder that I put flowers and baskets on for decoration.  On the top of the ladder, I usually place a large potted geranium.  I love geraniums for their bright and long lasting blooms and it really brightens up my front porch.

Every spring for the past four years, a robin has decided that she loves my geranium too, and decides it would be a great place to build her nest.  Unfortunately, the two cannot coexist.  If I let the nest stay, the plant will die because I will be unable to water it.

Now I love robins, don't get me wrong, (I even had one for a pet when I was seven) but I also can't justify ruining a $20 plant when there are plenty of trees nearby in which to build a nest.

So every day for about a week, I would go out and move the new robin's nest to a tree.  Then I would come home from school, and the robin will have rebuilt another nest in the geranium.  This went on for several days until the robin got tired of building a new nest and decided to find refuge elsewhere.

This year, I was prepared for battle again.

Apparently, the robin was not.

Instead of building her nest in my geranium, she decided to build it on one of the ladder shelves, safely tucked behind a tin bird house.  I laughed out loud when I saw this.

In the spirit of compromise, I have temporarily relocated my geranium to the other side of the porch so as to not disturb the nest.  There are now three eggs in the nest and the momma robin spends a lot of time there.  

I do not want to disturb her important work.