munching grass
black and white cow steps on
nest of quail eggs
© Freeda Baker Nichols
Tag Archives: nest
Banner Mountain Bluebirds
Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird
are back again today.
They love Banner Mountain
and here is where they’ll stay.
Sparrows took their bird house
and the bluebirds took to trees.
Their nest is well-hidden
in the thick, green leaves.
© Freeda Baker Nichols
Hummingbird King of the Crop
A white-shell egg, the size of tiny pea
lay warm beneath a feathered tummy fluff
in nest of hair and twine on limb of tree
that swayed when April’s wind blew gentle puff.
The hut was small as walnut shell–just right
to house the hummingbird in early spring.
When mama bird was left both day and night,
on little nest, she taught her babe to sing.
And now, the young bird’s grown and seems content
to wing above the trees and creeks and rocks.
Although he wonders where his papa went,
he thrives on nectar from pink four o’clocks.
He never frets but sings his song in trills
that echo like a love song from the hills.
Copyright, 2013, Freeda Baker Nichols
The Egg
A tiny egg in faded shell
lay cold upon the ground.
I bent down for a closer look–
such treasure I had found!
Had the blue egg been rejected
by a robin redbreast?
Or had a squawking big blue jay
robbed the little, straw nest?
c Copyright, 2012, Freeda Baker Nichols
Homeless in Spring
The cardinal’s feathers contrasted
sharply with the hedge bush;
he flitted noisily nearby
until the buzzing hushed.
In disarray, the bush fell
to the daisy-dotted ground–
a hand reached to gather the limbs,
then stopped at a soft cheeping sound.
A nest of twigs and twine–
home of featherless bird babies–
once secure on the fork of the limbs,
now lay scattered in the daisies.
The cheep-cheep of the birdies
could no longer be denied;
the big man picked them up
and with no one looking, cried.
Published in Ozarks Mountaineer,
The Arkansas Democrat Magazine,
and Poems by Poets’ Roundtable
of Arkansas
cCopyright, 2012 Freeda Baker Nichols
Freeda Baker Nichols 