Have I told you about my bird nest before? I can't remember.

My office is the eastern 2/3 of a small gabled extension to the main church building. (the other 1/3 is a stairwell to the basement). I have floor to ceiling windows directly below the peak of the gable (think 50's colored glass in squares and rectangles).
The angle of the roof's pitch is such that the very top window is a right triangle with an 18 inch base and a height of about 5 inches. A design feature of the roof structure actually causes a portion the overhang to cover all but about two inches of that pane, making it the perfect place to build a nest...out of the sun, out of the wind, cooled and heated through the window as the season warrants, and, so it would seem, generally protected...

Last spring, the starlings (I think that's what they are) moved in, and the chirping began...then the babies (2) came and chirping was joined by higher pitched peeping.... And then the evil demon squirrel (EDS) that prowels our property destroying baby bell peppers and shredding phone line insulation began trying to get to them...S/he would climb up the brick and try to scramble across two feet of right angled, slick window ledges to gain access to the nest...the birds, bless them, were terrified of the squirrel...For over a week, through the window, dspite my taps and attempts at visual intimidation (don't ask) EDS kept up the effort, without success...and then one day...walking from the house to the church, I saw...the top of my window unit air conditioner and ground below it were littered with all the detritus one might expect from a two year old nest torn to shreds...no sign of the birds...no more chirping. Did they live? What about the babies?

This year, the starlings were back...or two others came...And there was chirping...but long after the season for new baby birds (late May) the regular peeping never came...no eggs this year? And then suddenly last week...peeping...how neat...I thought.

Until...day before yesterday, walking from the house to the church...there it was on top of the air conditioner...not a nest, but what it once cradled...and there would be no more peeping. I tried to clean up while still showing the chick some respect.

Was it the squirrel, the heat, an accident, or did illness prompt the parents to expel it from the nest?

There was no chirping in the nest for the whole day...were they gone, in mourning, killed by the squirrel?

This morning, I know they are back because there is a flapping of wings against the window...and something more...

I am not one to anthropomorphize...they are birds...and in nature things happen...there are rules and hierarchies and seemingly cruel interactions that are simply the way things are...

Do the creatures in nature have the capacity to see what happens to them as sad, or cruel, or unfair...

Hard to know...

But if they can...what is their response to recent events?

at least in this case...

They sing....