It looks like we have some temporary house guests.

A pair of Eastern phoebes have once again decided to attach a tiny home to ours.

We are just hoping that their upcoming stay will be far less stressful than the one they had last year.

It all started on a high note in early March of 2023 when I spotted a bird furiously bobbing its tail in a nearby tree. It wasn’t one of our ordinary visitors. Not a cardinal, blue jay or chickadee - this was a phoebe, and I assumed it was making its way north after wintering somewhere warmer.

But that bird stayed. Almost every day, I’d see it in that same tree, or hear it calling, “Fee-bee! Fee-bee!”

It didn’t take long for me to become a bird stalker, watching it - and then its mate - whenever they were around.

I soon realized that they were making a nest behind a decoration attached to a porch wall. I was so happy to have “company.”

But that piece of real estate wasn’t exactly a prime one because within the first few days of construction, the ornament began to sag beneath the weight of the would-be nest.

And then it collapsed.

With a family on its way, the phoebes continued their house hunt, having to find a place FAST - and get building. This time they chose a very, very thin strip of molding over a porch door as their foundation for Home #2. Construction began.

Bob the Builder, these birds weren’t. With time running out before the babies’ due date, we would realize that these birds cut some serious corners.

The nest looked willy-nilly, barely spackled to the wall. It had to suffice, though, because Mrs. Phoebe had laid her eggs. She - or maybe it was her partner - stayed on the eggs while the other searched for food or did other “bird things” in the nearby forest.

The eggs eventually hatched. Five of them.

As they grew, so too did the nest. It expanded, then began to disintegrate and pull from the wall.

Next came the fallout. The nest - and its babies - toppled to the ground. We discovered it one evening and went into emergency (aka Google) mode. With some internet tips, we confiscated a plastic bowl from the kitchen and placed the remnants of the nest inside. We scooped up the babies (who were not very happy) and rested them into their battered digs. And we taped a piece of cardboard to the wall to make a foundation for the nest. We hung the nest.

We never expected it to work. With all the human upgrades, we thought the parents would abandon ship and their young wouldn’t make it.

But the next morning, Mrs. Phoebe was back on the Tupperware nest.

And I happened to be there a few days later to see all of the babies take flight. Of all the moments to catch? This exact moment was a blessing.

We joked that there was NO WAY - given all the trauma that they experienced - that these phoebes would return to the same place the next year - as they typically do.

But they did.

And we are happy to roll out the welcome mat.