A couple years ago, on the first evening back home from a trip, I had carried steaks out to grill, but when I opened the lid on our gas grill, I found a nest with eggs inside.
I went and got the small portable grill from the trailer, and used it instead. That big, expensive, stainless-steel grill in the back yard was totally useless until the babies left the nest about six weeks later.
The squatters were a pair of wrens, and apparently they think a gas grill is a perfect spot for a nest.
I guess it is - it provides shelter from weather, and with the lid down, the little vents in the back mean nothing much larger than a wren is going to get in, so it should be safe from most predators.
They (or some of their descendants) are back this year.
When I opened the grill this past weekend, there was no nest yet, but they had hauled in a lot of stuff – leaves, twigs, grass runners, etc. – to use to build one. I cleaned it out and used the grill as planned.
Yesterday morning, the grill was full of nest-building crap again, and as I cleaned it out, the little wrens sat on the fence with more stuff in their beaks, just waiting for me to go away. Their beady little bird eyes somehow made me feel guilty for wanting to use my own damn grill.
For now, I’m leaving the lid up, and the birds have not started rebuilding.
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