So the other night, I was reading bedtime stories to Lilah, and I heard this weird chirping noise that seemed to be coming from just on the other side of the wall, which happened to be an external wall.

Or maybe it was in the room. I checked to make sure it wasn’t coming from her CD player. Then I checked to make sure there wasn’t some sort of funny bug caught in her overhead lamp. Then I checked to make sure the same bug wasn’t dying on the little shelf above her crib.

More twittering. At this point I’m pretty sure it’s not in the room, but fear that whatever it is, it’s in the walls.

After Lilah goes down for the night, I stick my head out the front door too look at the external wall that would be housing the noise in Lilah’s wall. I’m thinking hornet’s nest, or worse, since we have cedar siding, termites. There are a few bees buzzing around, but not enough to suggest a nest in the walls.

The next morning when I got her up, the noise was even louder, definitely animal, probably not insects. I stick my head outside again, and scan the wall. Nothing. And then, discreetly, a sparrow sticks her head out of the wall, where a knot in the siding had been poked out. She’s got her nest in our house.

At first I thought I’d need to do something, but we’ll probably wait until summer to patch it up. After all, it’s nice to know that someone is sheltering her babies in the same place we shelter ours…