Not long ago while walking through the parking lot at work, I noticed an intact birds nest lying in the gravel. Although I already knew there were no trees even close to the area that it could have fallen from, I still took the time to look around. It looked so out of place just lying there. While standing there searching the lot it came to my attention that there were other nests scattered around. Most were flattened by the traffic of the lot but others were intact but in various stages of completion. There were almost a dozen of them! It was a mystery to me and mysteries always make me curious to solve it.

I began to watch each morning and evening to see where the nests were coming from. I soon discovered it was a robin! This robin must have fallen in love with, or was just stubbornly determined to have her nest in the wheel well of our plant superintendent’s red Chevy Tahoe! She would build it right on the top of the driver’s side rear wheel. I began watching for it everyday and there she would be in the morning beginning the construction of yet another new nest. Then in the evening there the nest would be lying in the parking lot gravel. It was so sad. The “nesting” instinct is strong in almost all females and in some males but the futility of repeatedly, day after day, building and then rebuilding a nest is heartbreaking, such a very foolish bird.