A couple of days ago, my husband came home from helping a friend clean up storm damaged trees in the backyard.

In amongst all the dead branches, they found not one, but two bird nests. At first, they thought one had an egg in it, but it was just a gum nut caught in the grass lining of the nest.

It’s simply amazing that birds can make such a thing. And I was most impressed by the differences between the nests.

One is woven entirely from twigs, each twig curved by beak, and then lined with grass. It is exactly what you image birds would build! Like in a cartoon!

But the other is made of a kind of felt of feathers, human string, and what looks like spider webs.

It has all been so beautifully merged together that it looks like it was produced out of a steam pressing mould. It smells as clean as if I just bought it from an expensive boutique. I suppose it has been washed by the rain.

How long does it take to collect all those spider web threads? Why would two different species of birds need such different nests?

I know there are answers somewhere, I just don’t know them.

So I’ll just enjoy being amazed, and add these to my collection of inspirational nature things I have on top of my computer monitor.