Tuesday 14 November 2017

Bird Nests, Art and Witchcraft

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The answer to yesterday’s Guess What? is: A magpie’s nest. Not that I can say for sure whether (for the magpies) it counts as one two-storey building, or two separate nests on top of each other… To me, seen from my window, it also rather resembles a big wicker sculpture of a woman’s head and shoulders... Magpie art? ; )


Anyway – the structure has grown since I first blogged about it in March 2014:

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There’s also a nest in another tree close by. You can see both of them in this photo from January 2015. Both nests have grown bigger since then, but it is the one to the left that has the “head” added on top now : )

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In the cemetery nearby, I recently also noticed this tree:

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My first thought was “an apartment tree for birds!” – Not sure, though… Someone yesterday suggested “witch’s broom” for my mystery picture (a kind of tree disease/deformity). While I’m pretty sure that magpies made the wicker sculpture - perhaps this other tree is “bewitched”?

10 comments:

  1. Wow! I knew it was some kind of nest but had absolutely no idea what kind it was. xo Diana

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  2. I thought it looked like the profile of a person, too. Magpies! They are so smart and playful! But we have none around here; I wish we did. This is so large, it looks more like a squirrel nest! I have never seen anything like it. But if any bird can build multiple roomed houses, it would be magpies.

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    1. Ginny, sometimes they can be a nuisance! but sometimes they're fun to watch as well...

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  3. It looks like witches' broom to me, too.
    I was sure it were magpies :-) They typically build such nests, constantly adding to the one they (or another couple) built before.

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    1. Meike, I did note that you made the right guess on the previous post, even as to what bird was likely to be the builder :)

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  4. I loved yesterday's picture puzzle and thought of the solution as a kind of a 'birdies maisonette' :) just didn't post it here ...
    The tree on your last picture however, is full of mistletoe rather than birds' nests ...
    A place of very good witchcraft energy, anyway ;-)

    Alles Gute & herzliche Grüße zu dir!

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    1. Mo, I doubt it's mistletoe - more likely the deformity known as Witch's Broom in English ('Hexenbesen' auf Deutsch; 'häxkvast' in Swedish). (Whatever did we do before the internet and Wikipedia? I for one wouldn't have known the name, or the "condition", in any language!)

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  5. I love the apartment tree, that is so wild and wonderful and odd and beautiful... the double decker nest is amazing and that over the years they keep adding. very interesting to me

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  6. Thanks everyone for your comments! I know every blogger will agree that one learns a lot from blogging... (Both from reading what others write, and doing one's own research!)

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Communication is what makes blogging fun :)
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