WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Finding last year's bird nests

Now that the weather is breaking, it's nice to get outside more often, and one of the nice things about this time of year, is that it's so much easier to see things before the leaves come out. One of the things Charlie Browne from the Fairbanks Museum looks for this time of year, are last years birds nests.

"They are all over the place once you have an eye for them. And I have a couple of them right here."

"Oh that's cute!"

"This is a little chipping sparrows nest. Typically made of pine needles and grass is woven into it. A beautiful little basket, often found right in your backyard, in a shrub or small tree."

"How do you know, who's made what nest?"

"Well, you have to regard the habitat, if the habitats right for that bird, you can look for that nest, and then you can know the materials that they prefer, and the size of the bird. Big bird, big nest."

"That helps too, right? And what is this one?"

"This is a robins nest, and they're very common, obviously."

"It looks like mud...."

"And they are very typically, mud and long course grass is woven into the mud. Sort of a example of primitive pottery."

"Absolutely. Now is a bird going to come back in the spring and use these nests again? They don't do they?"

"Most often birds do not reuse their last years nests. And there is a reason for that. The nests have decayed some, but also they often have parasites in them that the birds want to reintroduce into their bodies or into their young. "

"Eew. It's amazing how different these nests can look."

"This beautiful little moss and mud nest is an eastern phoebe nest, that was attached to a ledge, on the side of a house. You can see where it was glued right on. This one is my very favorite, this is a hummingbird nest, attached to a horizontal limb."

"That is cute!"

"It is cute, and tiny, with room for two tiny eggs in this little nest made of plant fluff and lichen, and probably attached to this limb with spider web."

"Amazing."

"Very beautiful."