Winter is waning, and I'm beginning to look at my backyard with anticipation of getting out in my garden. Gone will be the cold. Gone will be early dark nights. Gone will be cozy times by the fireplace. I'm ever so ready to open windows, listen to the birds, and welcome tree buds and plant shoots. This year's nesting time for me is over, but it's just commencing for the birds. I delight in starting to survey my yard to spot this year's nests.

Bird nests are amazing! The workmanship of their builders deserves admiration. Unlike the house I inhabit all year, the avian population uses intricate nests purely as nurseries. Each nest is the work of a single bird or mates. Instinctively, they know how to build the right nest, using the appropriate habitat location and choosing the perfect building materials. And they usually don't reuse them. Nests get filled with brown, white, blue, or spotted eggs, and then come the chicks that will only spend a few weeks in these natural cribs.

Backyard Birds customers have asked, "What kind of a house can I get where cardinals will nest?" The answer is "none." Cardinals build their nests in shrubs and trees, situating them about shoulder height. As the caretaker of your yard, it would be wise to know which birds like houses or shelves that you can provide and which birds will use your shrubs, trees, or brush piles as nest locations.

First, bluebirds and purple martins take specially made houses and require habitats that are not generally found in the heavily populated areas of Broad Ripple. Martins may have an interest in a lake home but not a city site. Look for wrens, chickadees, sparrows, nuthatches, and some titmice to fill wood houses in your yard. Cardinals, robins, jays, and hummingbirds will nest in your trees. Orioles will weave their nests, tie sophisticated knots of plant fiber, and suspend them from a tree limb. Morning doves might nest on a shelf. There are boxes for woodpeckers and owls, but a hollow tree will suffice.

Some precautions to heed when coming upon a nest whether it's in a bird house or in a tree:

Finally, remember that where there are nests there are baby birds. If you find a baby bird on the ground-do nothing. Most likely the parent is close by. If, however, the chick looks helpless and its parent is not forthcoming, place it back in the nest. Your scent will not cause the parent birds to abandon it. Because songbirds are protected by law, it is illegal to handle wild birds unless you have a wildlife rehabilitation license. Let nature take its course.

A bit of trivia: songbirds lay an egg a day. When finished, they incubate their eggs for 12-14 days. The fledglings leave the nest around the 14th day after birth and begin flying soon after.

While your seasonal nesting days may be ending, the birds in your backyard are building theirs, stacking, stuffing, and weaving twigs, mud, down, lint, and string into a perfect nursery as a new residence in your yard. Bird songs, nests, daffodils, and violets herald spring's new beginnings.