Trash to Treasure

 DH found this hung up in the edges of a spruce tree out by the road.  At first, he thought it was a plastic bag that must have been littered or fallen out of the back of the trash collection truck (pick up day was the day before) because it was very visible and hadn't been there a few days earlier.

But when he plucked it from the spruce boughs and took a closer look, he brought it into the house for me to see.  And for me to confirm what he suspected, that it might possibly be a bird's nest. (Not made in the spruce tree, but possibly having fallen into it from a taller maple tree nearby).

Despite it's unusual coloring and materials, I knew it at once as an oriole's nest.  How exciting!  I'd suspected for a few years that we might have a nesting pair at this little place here, having spotted--and heard--a male every Spring and now and then a female, but until now I had no proof.

It is missing part of the 'hanger' at the top, but looking at it I could see the cup shaped interior that was lined with dried grasses.  Definitely a bird nest, and given that there are very few birds around here that make hanging nests like this, definitely having been made by an oriole.  Hooray!

Examining it, I could see it was made of pieces of bale wrap netting from round bales (the neighbor feeds their donkeys with round bales; apparently with the netting still on), a couple little snippets of the bright blue baling twine that my hay is tied with, the skinny plastic 'pull tab' off of a grain bag, and strands of dark tail hair most likely from the horses that reside at this little place here.  Interesting choice of materials, but apparently they did the trick.

The nest is on one hand, very inspiring as a trash to treasure making art from recycled materials type of thing.  Especially so since the materials were 'hand picked' as it were by a bird and not a human.

On the other hand, I found it rather alarming and depressing that plastic trash is so prevalent in this rural neighborhood that the oriole made the entire exterior of the nest from plastic (and tail hairs)  rather than the native grasses (and shed animal hairs) that would typically be used.  

Adapting to their environment: YAY!!

So Much Plastic: BOO!