u/HoldOnHelden

I’m not posting photos because nobody needs that. :P

My good friend Edgar and his shy mate Edwina have been nesting near us for years.* They’ve rarely been the gifting types (that we know of), but this week they’ve started being EXTREMELY generous.

We have received:
1 starling head
1 headless, eviscerated corpse of a… catbird, maybe?
2 messily-detached wings stripped of feathers and skin

All macabre offerings have been left on top of the fountain next to the front door. The fountain is a type that sends water out of a nozzle in the center so it just runs over a flat patterned stone. So the gifts aren’t soup, just… gently damp.

They have also started doing alarm calls when delivery persons come up the walk.

*it is possible our nesting pair are the second generation to befriend us—they sometimes leave fledgelings in our bushes for us to babysit.

I think it was a chapter book aimed at younger readers. I don’t remember anything about the plot, just that the main character is a young girl with a pet animal that looks like a rabbit but is really something called a “lapin.” I don’t remember what the difference is supposed to be. I think she has to travel with it at some point in the book and… possibly she has to hide it?

SOLVED! The Green-Sky Trilogy (possibly specifically book 2 “Below the Root”) by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

None of the helpful bot’s suggestions fit.