Colorful nest found in fuchsia

Published 5:00 pm Wednesday, July 12, 2000

“Photo: Three baby juncos point their beaks over the edge of their nest in a fuchsia plant in the Bayview Farm and Garden greenhouse.Matt Johnson / staff photoThere is at least one mama bird on South Whidbey that has had it with unpredictable island weather.Early this month, employees at Bayview Farm and Garden noticed that a female junco had taken up residence in a hanging fuchsia plant in the nursery’s greenhouse. Not only that, she had built a nest and laid eggs. By mid-month, the eggs had hatched, and now the junco and her three babies are living in climate-controlled surroundings.Owner Maureen Rowley said the mother bird first built her nest in the hanging basket while its plants were rooting in Bayview’s growing facility. When employee Dick Tilkin moved more than 100 baskets to the Marshview Road greenhouse, the bird and her nest came along for the ride.Surprisingly, the bird family is living almost undisturbed in the basket. Hanging about eight feet off the ground, the basket’s top is not visible from beneath. However, the mother junco does frequently leave the nest, chirping loudly in hopes of luring away anyone near her babies.Although most birds are not known for their ability to find their way out of an enclosed space, especially one made of glass, the nursery’s resident bird seems to know every nook and cranny of the building. Carol Douthitt, another Bayview employee, said the bird manages to leave the greenhouse even when it is locked after business hours.I don’t know how she finds her way in and out, Douthitt said.The junco nest is the second set of resident birds to hatch and take wing at the garden center this year. A mother robin raised a brood of chicks in the spring under a rack of plants outside the greenhouse.”