71. Charlotte Plunkett, Brooktondale,  New York 

A pair of Eastern Fly Catchers (Phoebes) needed to know the right temperature!

72. Kenlynn Schroeder, Baltimore, Maryland

 My first time on my deck after winter: imagine my surprise to hear a bird flutter off and immediately discover two beautiful pristine white eggs in  a little nest in an ugly black plastic flower pot on my stove, the "Detroit Jewel."  We took breaks from whatever we were doing, every couple hours, to observe and capture the events on camera.  This went on for weeks until the family flew away and then one baby returned to the deck every day for almost two weeks.  This is the "Miracle on My Deck", which became a whimsical art exhibit at Lucinda Gallery in Baltimore where it runs through the summer.

73. Barbara Galyean, San Angelo, Texas

This mockingbird nest is in an old coffee can that was made into a candleholder. It's on a friend's porch so I was able to take photographs.

74. Chris Dobbins, Weaverville, North Carolina

Always a good idea to have a Gargoyle guard an American Robin’s nest when it is by the front door of our home.

75. Lynn Darling, Lincoln, Nebraska

In 2007 I had a Carolina Wren build a nest in a small drawer on the back workbench in the garage.  If you shut the door and she was outside, she told you about it.  She would be there glaring at you when you opened up the door.  She would not use the side door----No!!!!! It had to be the garage door.  Luckily I do not live in an urban area so the door could be left open.

76. Carolyn Hall, Bassett, Nebraska

In 1962 I was ranching with my parents in Keya Paha County, Nebraska.  I used an small Allis Chalmers tractor to pull the dump rake.  When I went to hook the tractor to the rake about the first of June, there was a house wren nest in the tool box of the tractor.  Back then the tool boxes had a hole in them so you could put the neck of a grease gun through the hole and the gun would be in the box.  We had not used the tractor since the previous fall, so the grease gun was not in it's holder.  Anyway, when I asked my Father what I should do, he said go use the International B tractor and leave the Allis sit until the birds fledged.  I never left that hole unplugged after that year.  The Allis Chalmers was a much better rake tractor.

77. Mr and Mrs. Carroll and Susanne Barrymore, Santa Barbara, California

We first noticed a bunch of stuff in the top of this ceramic bamboo sculpture my husband made May 3, '09, and then I noticed a shining eye looking at me.  It is right next to our bedroom sliding glass door and screen, out of which we come and go frequently.  The Pacific-slope Flycatcher  steadfastly sat on the eggs in spite of our activities, and at last after June first, they have been coming and going at a great rate, feeding the young.  You can barely see the head and eye of the young one in one of the June pictures.   The parents are calling all the time during the daytime, as they come and go, but we haven't heard a single peep from the young.  Well behaved chicks.

78. Pauline Carter,  Port Townsend, Washington

Last month I was at Yosemite National Park and a pair of Stellar's Jays were nesting under a patio umbrella at the food court.  It was a big sticky nest in the spokes of the umbrella with the female sitting on it and people eating quietly at the table. A park employee who was watering flowers nearby said there was a nest there in past years, too.

79. Peter Stettenheim, Plainfield, New Hampshire

The most unusually placed nest I've ever seen was that of a House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) on the vertebrae of a whale skeleton hanging from beams in the Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand (December 5, 1990). I was in Christchurch for the 20th International Ornithological Congress, and took a few hours off from the meeting to visit the museum. Later, I had the pleasure of telling Dennis Summers-Smith (an authority on the species) about it and he went to see it for himself, never having heard of such a location. Unfortunately, I don't have a photograph of the nest.

        Although this entry lacks documentation, I'm submitting it because the nest location is "funky," which is what you are asking for.

80.  Timothy Lipetz, Worthington, Ohio

This American Robin pair built their nest on the wreath attached to our front door.  Notice the windows in the door - every time we would walk by the front hall the mom would squawk at us and fly off.  Since the nest would swing into the house, we could no longer open the door to get the mail or newspaper.  Even when my wife would send me around from the back door to get them, the mom and dad would dive bomb my head - the porch was their territory.

The day after I shot these pictures, the fledglings took flight - now the porch seems so empty!

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