Mama Bird Stake

She lays one a day, and waits.

A bird building a nest does most of the shaping with her own body. She lays in the grass and stems, then settles into the middle and turns — pressing, packing, turning again — until the cup fits her exactly. It is the only piece of furniture in the world made to measure that way.

Then comes the part worth knowing. She lays one egg a day, usually not long after sunrise, and she does not begin sitting until the last one is down. The eggs simply wait, cool, in the order they arrived. Only when the clutch is complete does she settle in for good — so that they all warm together, and all hatch on the same morning, within a few hours of one another.

She could have started sooner. She doesn't. Everyone comes along at once, and no one is behind.

We had this one cut with her up on the rim, looking out, and a dragonfly lit on the branch alongside. Choose the nest with one egg, two, or three, whichever matches the house it's going to.

People give it to mothers, and to daughters who have just become mothers. It says the thing without saying it.

Set it where it will be seen from a window you use — the trunk of the tree in the yard, the post by the porch, the edge of the garden.

Specifications