Bird's nest in the engine compartment

After a while of not using my aircraft I went to the airfield to practice a bit. The first thing I noted when approaching the aircraft was the damage the wind and sun had done to the protectice cover. Everything else looked pretty well.

Then I went on to check the oil level and found:

That required to remove the upper cowling. Some birds had found the protected space below the cowling to be the perfect spot to raise their kids. They’ve been quite busy to carry in all kinds of gras to build two nests.

I went to a maintenance shop on the airfield and they were kind enough to let me use their compressed air machine to blow out all the remnants of the nest. I even found an egg that didn’t hatch.

The engine did start immediately with the rest of gas that didn’t evaporate. After filling up I went for a test flight, did three touch and goes and a little local bimble. Everything went smooth with no further discoveries.