How cool is this?

So how cool is this... We had this party about a month ago and in preparation I went out and bought a couple of those round pots filled with a mix of flowers that you buy for $12 at Home Depot. I put one of them on a plant stand at the top of the deck stairs and the other on the table (outdoor furniture - btw, Wal-Mart has surprisingly nice and inexpensive outdoor furniture!).

On to the point... Sitting next to the table the other day I see this little mass of (appears to be) clotted up leaves and pine needles. I start poking around and... out flies this bird! Teeny little thing, finally we figured out that it's a Carolina Wren, at least we think.

We wondered if I'd scared it off, but a couple of times since we have scared the bejeesus out of it and it's scared the bejeesus right back out of us, flying out of there when we go to poke around and look for it, or even just stand nearby.

I worry it will move out. I moved the chairs away from the table so that 1) we wouldn't disturb him when we're out there and 2) the dogs couldn't get up on the chairs and get up on the table, which I have seen the rascals do. John, on the other hand, goes into commando "I'm taking back my deck" mode and moves the chairs right back over there and plops his butt down (talk about pissing me right off, which of course he just thinks is most humorous...).

I hope it stays.... Now I just worry that the babies will get eaten by my babies (the dogs).

Which reminds me of a related topic - we have red-tailed hawks that live nearby, which I thought was really cool until I saw one of them flying tree to tree. I was watching it thinking how magnificent it was until I noticed that there was a much smaller bird trying to swoop it. It was trying to get the hawk away from its nest, where the hawk was eating the eggs. Dam* hawk. I kept watching and it went to about 5 other birds nests and the little helpless birds all swooped and screamed but couldn't stop it. I'm an animal lover and I know all about the circle of life and all that BS, but come on, that hawk could eat some rodents or something. I wouldn't even mind if it was catching and eating some of the smaller birds, but to go in there and pillage the eggs, UGGH! The one time I wished I had a slingshot, to at least scare it off or something.