An avian dilemma

Sometimes after I exercise, I go out on my front porch to cool off.  For the past several weeks, I've been surprised at how aggressive a certain type of bird has been when I'm standing out there.  It flies toward me and then veers at the last second.  I thought this was odd, but I'm no expert on birds, so I didn't give it any more thought.

When I went out to get the paper this morning, I finally figured out what's going on.  I happened to look on the opposite side of one of the pillars on the porch.  I saw a whole bunch of bird droppings.  I knew what that meant.  Sure enough, nestled between that pillar and the roof over the porch, there's a nest.  That agressive bird is just protecting its territory. (If I knew more about birds, I could tell you what kind of bird it is, but I can't.)

If it were a wasp's nest, I wouldn't have any problem getting rid of it.  But I can't quite bring myself to destroy a bird's nest, even though they're making a mess on my porch.  What if there are baby birds in there?  I guess I'll wait until it gets cold.  Not all birds leave Minnesota in the winter, but maybe if I wait until the early winter, I won't be destroying anyone's home.

Update:  I realized that I can see the nest from one of my living room windows, and there are indeed chicks in there.  My aggressive friend is feeding them.  So, the birds win for now.  I'll let them make their mess and try to deal with it when it gets cold.

And let me tell you, I got a very angry response from one of the parents when I went out to take these pictures: