Leaving the nest

Have you ever watched how the birds build their nests? I have been very fortunate to watch their everyday activities right under my nose,so to speak. Those of you who had ever been to my house or just passing by,probably remember noticing the swiflets 'squatting' at my house. A few months ago,I think it was in October, I asked a carpenter to seal some exposed beams of my balcony with plywood because for years,countless years,the black swiftlets ( a kind of black bird that makes bird's nest which the Chinese use for medicinal purposes and the nests are costly) had been residing there,building their nests and the clan grew by the hour. You would be surprised how productive & reproductive the swiftlets are. But the swiftlets that resided at my balcony built their nests from grass,not from their saliva otherwise I would be known as 'towkay neo' sarang burung'...a rich woman just by selling their saliva made nests. We got rid of them before, but they still kept coming back,so we opened up the ceiling of the balcony again to let them stay there. Furthermore,my mum kept nagging us that we should let the birds stay there because it meant that our house was 'chelap' (cooling) and 'good'...something like that... Fortune would come our way like the swiftlets came in the hundreds. (Myth) Don't believe all that! If it had been true, my name would be on Forbe's or Forbes' list of rich people & I'd be rubbing shoulders with Oprah Winfrey. Back to the nest....
The nests were just outside where our tv room is...so when the swiftlets came back from gallivanting in the evening, around 6.30pm to 7.30pm,we could hardly concentrate watching the tv because the birds were busy chirping away. It was maddening to hear & see them trying to attach themselves to the sides of the concrete beams because not all of them had nests. Only the mother swiftlets and the newborn swiftlets stayed in the nests. A few times the baby swiflets fell from the nests onto the floor or drains. Every morning,on the pavement,they left tons & tons of s__t/ (out of respect for Joe,in case he reads this posting,I won't write the s--t word) I'll just say the birds left tons, tonnes & tonnage of birds' droppings on the floor and every morning we had to wash them away.( In case you are wondering,why Joe's name appeared when I mentioned the' s--t' word. Well, Joe had the shock of his life when he heard me saying 'dog's s--h' in our kopi shop talk. He said, his nan (his Ini/Inik) would ______ (can't remember the exact word he used) if she heard the 's--t' word. Locally, the word is loosely used to describe any kind of 'droppings' be it from the humans,the animals or the birds. Then I asked him how else or what word would be proper to call the 'droppings'? He said, "POOH!". So, POOH, it is from now onwards. Birds' pooh..dog's pooh...Rambo's pooh! ha..ha..ha..
Where was I? Back to the birds...I could see how the birds feed the baby birds in the nests with care and dedication for only a few days. Several days later, the baby birds would make an attempt to move about and trying to flap their wings. Quite a few would fall off the nests while some would get hurt as a result of the fall and would probably die. The ones that waited until they were fit & ready to fly,survived. It looked like they were impatient to leave the nests so as to see what's in store for them outside the nests. Strange,every behaviour be it from the birds or from us seems to tell a story.