were nesting

• past progressive

  past progressive

  Used to describe an ongoing action or continuous state that was happening at a specific time in the past.

  of nest.
  nest

  noun

  a pocketlike, usually more or less circular structure of twigs, grass, mud, etc., formed by a bird, often high in a tree, as a place in which to lay and incubate its eggs and rear its young; any protected place used by a bird for these purposes.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

were nesting

She’d come across one of the first 100 Blüthner pianos ever built, but it had been abandoned and damaged to the point that squirrels were nesting on its strings.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 11, 2024

He often said that he was part Cherokee; the name Clu came from “clu-clu,” a Cherokee word for the birds, known in English as martins, that were nesting at the Gulager home.

From New York Times ● Aug. 7, 2022

The agency hired a contractor to start dredging the shipping channel in Brunswick on May 28 while loggerhead sea turtles were nesting on nearby beaches.

From Washington Post ● May 20, 2021

It's a natural characteristic of the penguins - they will always return to where they possibly were nesting.

From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2019

She looked as if a whole family of the birds of sadness were nesting in her hair.

From "Walk Two Moons" by Sharon Creech

Related Words

• burrow
• den
• refuge