"Move Over," says the Robin

In years past, we have had a problem with purple finches building their nests on the front porch. Either on the light fixture or in a wreath that was hanging for decoration. I let them build for a few years...but then I got tired of the messiness of it all. Having to sweep a few times a day, washing the wall behind the nest when they were finished, having to stay away while they were nesting, and having a wreath destroyed by their messy ways. I did   however  enjoy watching the little birds raising their young.
Those precious little beaks raised upward to catch a worm during their, it seemed to me, constant feeding. I worried about them on stormy nights and windy days. Would they fall out of the nest? Last year, after the babies hatched, I checked on them one day and found them all gone....way before they could have fledged Did some marauder come during the night and steal them away? Well this year I had a plan. I would make a wreath and put an artificial nest with eggs in the middle of it. I hung it one day and saw the little finches in the ash tree...watching me.  The finches checked it out many times, but they were frightened and didn't build there. When what to my surprise one morning...to find an almost completed nest constructed right next to the fake one. This nest was made by a master nest builder. Perfectly round with a perfect cup shaped bowl for eggs. The inside of the nest seemed to be made out of clay...it must have taken hours to build this. What kind of a bird could have built it? Surely not the little purple finches...their nests were never very neat. I thought that I knew, but I watched very carefully. Sitting here in my computer room, I can see the ash tree in the front yard. I noticed that a couple of robins kept flying back and forth from the tree to somewhere near the house. I moved to another window looking out on the porch....sure enough there they were....Mr. and Mrs. Robin, taking debris to this new home of theirs. They had no fear and built it right nest to the fake one....sort of a birdie condo.I was asked, "Why don't you take it down?" I thought about it and then decided that it was almost finished and they had worked so hard, I just couldn't do it. So, there it hangs.....just above my chair at eye level. I guess I will have to share my space for a while. It won't be hard to do...I have so much to do in the garden.. I'm hoping that they will get used to my quiet ways and we can coexist.
Balisha