the grape harvest has started here, with tractors hauling big dumpsters full of grape clusters through the village streets, and along the shoulders of regional highways. what almost everyone else wants from the vineyards are these grapes. but what i’ve been waiting for are my deliveries of birds nests. the grape pickers come across nests that have been constructed in the branches of vines. they check with jean-luc to make sure they aren’t the nests of birds that might come back next year to reuse the same nest, and then they remove them and give them to me. today i received four, including this incredible beauty left behind by a mama bird that most likely got preyed on, or she would never have left five eggs behind. no one in the group of pickers today could remember seeing five eggs in a single nest. when i first saw it, i brought my hands to my face, and felt choked up about how beautiful it was.

chardonneret élégant bird nest with eggs

taken from jean-luc’s hectare of syrah vines in autignac, france