They're baaaack!!!  I called to my husband from our front porch. 

I had just inserted my key in the lock when a small bird darted out of the grapevine wreath hanging next to the door and flew to the redbud tree that shades our front lawn.

Another spring, and our very own avian nursery was back in business!

With the exception of a brief respite in January and February, the unrelenting heat is a Florida fact of life -so much so that it almost seems as if we live in a virtually seasonless climate- with sweltering, steamy summer-like weather being the norm for so much of the year.

Having been raised in upstate New York - I can still feel my slush-filled boots and sodden mittens as I trudged home from school on overcast, snowy afternoons- I have never  waxed nostalgic for the charms of a "real" change of season as so many transplants seem to do. As far as I'm concerned, there's something to be said for the regularity of the weather here in Florida and I never really thought I missed those harbingers of spring that our neighbors to the north look forward to so eagerly as the calendar slips from March to April.  That was until a year or two ago ...

That was when I noticed that the hanging plant on my front porch (which I have to replace frequently owing to my decidedly brown thumb!) was suddenly alive with birdsong! A bird had built her nest right in the pot and was raising her little family there! For 2 or 3 weeks we observed their comings & goings, then suddenly they were gone, we hoped to nests in one of the giant oaks in our yard. 

That was 2 years ago.

Last year, mother bird again returned and built a new nest in my dying petunia hanger, but she and her nestlings didn't stay long - we found a dead baby bird on the porch floor, a broken egg, and mother seemed to have disappeared.

But now  ... they're back!!

 All week, we have watched the nest- a curious construction that resembles a brown igloo- grow, though we  haven't seen any eggs yet, And I'm sure it was our mother who greeted me from the redbud tree this morning as I ventured outside to retrieve my morning papers. 

Soon, if all goes well, we will be hearing the sweet sounds of her babies chirping, and watch as she flies in and out of the nest with nourishment for them.

Even my husband ( an unsentimental soul if ever there was one) is excited by the return of "our" birds, and why not?  It's been a couple of very difficult years- several deaths in both families, elderly relatives struggling with failing health, not to mention the depressing state of world affairs - but something as simple as a bird's nest can remind us of the myriad pleasures to be found in the quoditian aspects of life.

And, honestly, in a funny way, I just feel so honored that this particular bird seems to trust us enough to build her home and raise her family so close to ours.

Now if  I can only protect her from all the univited (and unappreciated) neighborhood cats who prowl our yard!