Birds build their nests out of anything that they find handy. This nest (above) is built mainly of twigs and mud, but look at the fishing line! The orange thing is an oak gall. This particular nest was built in an oak tree alongside a river where fishing is a popular sport, which explains the fishing line.

The nest above was too high in the tree for me to get a better picture, but I can tell that it was built from a lot of grass. It must have been a nice soft nest for the hatchlings to snuggle down in.

I've shown this nest before, but now that all of the leaves are gone, it's so much easier to see. You can see that it was constructed mainly of mud, with twigs and grass. It is really a pretty big nest. I'm hoping that the birds that lived in it last year will return this Spring, and I can see what type they are.

An aerie is built of twigs and sticks. It doesn't look particularly soft and cuddly, do you think?

These branches are infested with clusters of mistletoe, but the very top, left cluster, isn't mistletoe at all. It is the aerie that you saw in the previous picture!

This is a wonderful time of year to hunt for nests in the woods! With few or no leaves on the trees, just keep your eye out for a tangle of twigs in a Y, where a couple of branches come together.

There are large bunches of green leaves in this otherwise bare tree which has no leaves of it's own. Those bunches are mistletoe. It is a parasite, which means that it lives on the branches of a host tree or shrub. It is actually very unhealthy for the tree that the mistletoe is growing on.

We have a tradition which involves decorating with mistletoe during the Christmas season. Our tradition is to hang a bunch of mistletoe high, like in a doorway, and any two people who happen to meet under the mistletoe, are obliged to kiss. Ewww! Wierd, huh?

While you're looking at the mistletoe, notice all of the woodpecker holes in the trees!