You catch the evening weather forecast and that next May morning the temperature is predicted to drop to about 55 degrees. You decide to skip the AC and leave some windows open. If you are anything like me, 4:30 rolls around very quickly and it’s time to start the day. It’s not even light yet and I am hearing at least three or four different robins “singing their hearts out.”

Well that singing began a month earlier when the male robins found you or your neighbors’ yards suitable places to claim for their soon prospective mates. Once he’s claimed that territory (and singing is a way of protecting it from other male robins) his mate will soon begin nest building.

I was “working” the garden and sat down to relax. Soon a female robin flew into the other end, carefully sorted through the soft and damp earth, filled her beak and off she flew. I watched her repeat this process about a dozen times. A few of the trips she added some dried grass clippings to her beak before she again departed.

About a week later I carefully located the nest in our spruce tree and I knew what I’d find: a neatly constructed mud and grass nest. It was identical to all the others I’ve found.

If I walked to my neighbor’s yard or checked a Jim Thorpe or Nesquehoning robin nest, they would all look the same. Each robin is programmed to construct a specifically designed and shaped nest. It is an innate (inborn) trait. Robins, bluebirds, phoebes, or whatever species didn’t go to a specialized post high school program to master their HVAC, plumbing, or welding skills. They don’t have to. No matter where you look to find a robin nest, Indiana, Michigan, or on Main Road in Weissport, the robins’ nests will look the same except for maybe a different soil color and different grass species used in its construction.

I’ve already mentioned how amazed I am at bird migration and how they end up back in the same yard where they were born, but nest building rivals that as well. How about a yellow warbler, a common host to a cowbird egg? When it discovers the invader’s bigger egg, it often rebuilds a second nest atop the old one (a double-decker nest).

Phoebes build nests with much moss, chipping sparrows line their nest with horse hair, and if not available, probably some of your golden retriever’s. Many warblers and vireos take spider webs to tie the nest together. (Remember how strong a spider web is.)

Tree swallows always add feathers (not their own), while a bluebird, also a cavity nester, never adds feathers. Great crested flycatchers, a Times News area resident bird, adds a shed snake skin. Why? What I find most amazing about that is, how does a year old crested flycatcher in its first nesting know to do that?

Remember, except for ospreys or bald eagles, almost all other birds build a new nest each year. Even bluebirds that have two nests each summer construct a new second nest. Bird nests and nesting are additional intriguing things of nature, so, get out there. …

Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: After catching an insect or other small prey, a bullfrog or toad pulls its eyes down into its head. Why?

Last Week’s Trivia Answer: The older communities like Slatington, Nesquehoning or Palmerton had many homes heated with coal or oil and had masonry chimneys not used in the summer months. Some newer homes today have no chimneys or metal inserts where swifts can’t nest.

Contact Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com.