What a shame. The high winds today destroyed the paper lantern in the backyard that a pair of house sparrows had chosen to build their nest. While Susan found the nest itself intact on the ground, unfortunately she also found the splats and shell fragments of what looked to be two tiny eggs that the nest had been housing.

I think the eggs had only been laid within the last day or so, and while it might be futile, I’m going to rummage around in the basement for a spare lantern I know is down there and this weekend attempt to install the nest within it and rehoist it up to its previous place.

UPDATE (4/13): I couldn’t wait until the weekend. With the winds seeming to have blown themselves out overnight, I got down in the basement early this morning and found the spare paper lantern, and after successfully placing the nest inside through it’s top opening hung the whole thing back up under the eave. It may be too little too late, but since birds are known to lay another clutch of eggs if the first gets destroyed, the few minutes it took are totally worth the try.