A Nest With A View

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These little birds must be some classy chicks!  Falco tinnunculus, aka kestrels have been coming back to roost in the spires of Notre Dame for eons.

The view must be absolutely magnificent overlooking the Seine and the garden behind Notre Dame Cathedral .

Frankly I had never heard of them, but any birds that love Notre Dame as much as I do, are worth knowing about.

They were also reported to nest in other choice locations such as the Louvre, the chapel of Hôpital La Pitié Salpetrière and the Musee de la Vie Romantique , where George Sand And Chopin lived out their trysts.

It was just your typical cool rainy saturday that this Louisiana girl just never really gets use to.  I certainly did not let this dampen my interest in seeing these little falcon like creatures, who like myself can’t get enough of a good view.

The French ornithological society, had a booth behind Notre Dame with their high powered scopes of the nest, but no chicks were on view, with the explanation that they were too far back in the nest.

Word of two visible ones in a nest over by La Pitié Salpetrière sent us out trekking over the pont St Louis ,pass Berthillon ice cream stand on Quai d’Orleans along Ile St. Louis.

Crossing the Seine , I walked along the river through Tino Rossi park to Blvd de l’Hopital,  a route I often took when I lived on Rue Buffon, across from Jardin des Plants.

Chapel St Louis is an architectural delight in itself located in of my favorites hospitals in Paris.  Huge spacious grounds bordered with colorful flowers once harbored such psychiatric greats such as Pinel, Jung and Freud and the father of neurology, Charcot.

And there they were in all their cuteness.  Fluffy little babies peering out from their nest awaiting Mama or Papa and some juicy little morsel. Well worth the drizzly rain and wet feet !

Riding home on the metro got me thinking about the significance of nesting for us poor humans, if we are lucky to have a nest and someone to share it with.

Nesting is not just for the birds you know.   We humans, regardless of our means, all have a need to carve out a little place of our own.

I remember distinctly, two homeless men, this past winter, who  constructed intricate little “habitats” from whatever materials they could find.  We all need nests, preferably occupied with loving others.

Deprived of a place to call home, we feel uprooted, displaced, unease and smack with the anxiety of any security whatsoever. I think of the many uprooted families in America, who have lost their homes and are now consecrated to living out of trucks and cars.

If our birdie friends are said to be 95% monogamous for at least the breeding season or several years, they are an exemplar in terms of fidelity , given their relative short life span.

Perhaps we arrogant humans could learn something from our feathered friends after all!

10 thoughts on “A Nest With A View”

    1. Thank you for your support Herbie! We have so much to learn from nature. I marvel along with you the incredible intelligence of dolphins and whales. So many secrets to discover!

  1. Anne Cookston

    Glad to find it, Cherry. You just get better and better. Keep it up.
    Amazing how you can always cut right to the heart of of the truth.

    1. Thank you Anne! I think we are all getting better at living this life. May we all find our own truth!

  2. Shawn McBride

    I’m delighted to find your blog (thanks, Facebook) and look forward to visiting it often. You have great powers of observation and expression.

    1. Wonderful to hear from you Shawn! Thank you for your kind compliments. I enjoy reaching out to others with whatever may be of help.

  3. Cherry ,thanks for sharing your very interesting bird watching adventure. As you know Robin and I enjoy bird watching. and our pet Parrots now live in Florida with Robin’s brother who also has Parrots . They have adapted very well to ther new home .but as humans we all need a nest in order to keep our sanity.

    1. I remember well visiting your feathered babies. I am sorry they live so far from you as certainly you miss them.
      I am away from Paris so was not able to respond to your comment right away, which is always very appreciated!Hugs

  4. To me, it brings to mind the homelessness of the millions of refugees that Europe is now awash with. Millions of desperate, basically homeless individuals and fragmented families “without a nest” to call home. This is certainly going to change the fabric of society in Europe.

    How do you see all of this manifesting in Paris?

    And as for the monogamy of the birds . . . if human lives were as short as the lives of the birds, that might be helpful . . . . Ha! I recall a British minister many years ago saying years ago, that he didn’t think that humans were psychologically suited for such extended years of marriage; that it was more than most people can handle. (But the temptations should be less with the effects of getting older, huh?)

    1. Because I am away from Paris, I am sorry your comment did not appear sooner David.
      Because France has not taken in the same numbers of refugees as Germany i have not seen them in the streets of Paris.
      Majority have been sent to residences in surrounding suburbs.
      Fidelity has more to do more with a person s personality, cultural and spiritual perspective to what constitutes marital fidelity.
      Hugs

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