nest

I found a palm-sized bit of nest in a hedge, one morning this week. It was something from last year, plainly, shredded by a bird as it foraged for new materials with which to rebuild for the spring. Dirty and wind-frayed around the edges, still the construction was fascinating. A large quantity of 20-pound test fishing line was included, as well as a strand of black plastic and a variety of dried bits of grass and thin muddy twigs. The best part though -- I found the nest near the beauty school, and the bulk of the bundle is woven from gray hair, human hair. A soft lining, warm when it was still clean and comfortable, undoubtedly collected near the Aveda building's trash bins. Someone's hair, trimmed off and swept away, put to new purpose by a sparrow of the city.