Persistence

Across the street from us, way up high in a tree, is a nesting box. Originally it was meant to entice a pair of owls to raise their family in our street. That never happened.
But since last year another pair of birds are eyeing the bird-house. A pair of Egyptian geese.

It is not uncommon to see them sitting on light posts, and it is known that they like places high up to nest. Finding a hollow high up in a tree would be ideal for them. But those are hard to find. This bird house though seems to tick a lot of the boxes as far as finding the perfect spot.

There is one problem though…
IN order to get into the bird house, they would need to land on the branch in front of the opening to the bird house, and it has grown at a fairly steep angle from the trunk of the tree. This is most definitely something they are not used to.
Yet they cannot find a way to get into the bird house from the top either…

To find a solution to their dilemma they are now visiting the birdhouse pretty much every day. With one of the geese on top of the bird house and the other one on a roof close by, they are loudly discussing the pros and cons of this almost perfect space.
Then they leave, only to return to have yet another second look.

At some point it seemed that their persistence had payed off, as one of the pair was contently looking out of the box, while the other one was quietly sitting on top of it.
They even tested how easy or hard it would be to fly to and from their new abode. Only to decide that this wasn’t going to work for them.

And then they returned just a couple of weeks later ~ possibly disturbed or chased off their second choice dwelling ~ again checking out the merits of this high-up hangout.

At this point there is no telling whether their persistence will pay off, or whether they eventually will move on. It has to be hard for them to find a good nesting spot in the city. On the other hand it seems that Spring time is just providing them with the drive to keep trying…

It makes me think on how persistence us humans are. Do we keep trying? Or do we give up when we can’t get it to work. Are we looking to learn new skills, or will we find a way that is more suitable to the skills we already have, such that we don’t have to learn more, or even handle changes that may come into our lives?

In other words, when we look at persistence, is it just a wast of time and effort, or is it the inspiration we need to move forward?