Spring is here!

Update: well the new box is up and the Red-breasted Nuthatches have taken that box over too and evicted the chickadees once more and will not let them enter the box. In fact they chase them all around the yard and will barely let them eat. I will try with another box in the front yard but think it's over for the chickadees this year :(. The nuthatches are super cute but super aggressive. I will miss not having baby chickadees in the yard. Hopefully next year they can both coexist or maybe the nuthatches take a year off from my site... although I love them as well... my heart is aligned with my Chickadees. I do look forward to baby nuthatches though :)

You've probably noticed signs of spring all around you, the birds are singing, the swallows are back, Rufous Hummingbirds and Osprey have returned, men are walking outside with their shirts off...

Yes spring is here and it finally came to my yard today. Today I has my first male Rufous at the feeder. I love these little orange fireballs :). While I was watching my Chickadee nest box I heard the soft cooing of a Red-breasted Nuthatch I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Then I saw one male making his cute nasal calls in the apple tree near the feeder so I thought he had just come into feed then I heard a second one coming from the nestbox direction and I turn and see the female poking her head out! I was in shock a week ago I had seen Black-capped Chickadees at it well they had been duly evicted! The nuthatches were fighting and beaking off the chickadees so they couldn't re-enter. Well I love my chickadees everyone who knows me knows that they nest in my year every year and we have been through some tough years with crows eating every single fledged young until last year we had all six babies fledge and healthy. It was fun to be able to see the fledged young grow and be fed outside the box until they looked almost adult. Well I didn't want to lose them as I have a flock of ten chickadees in my yard. So I put up a second box and one Chickadee pair has been entering it and checking it out so fingers crossed!

It would be double the cuteness to have baby Red-breasted Nuthatches and Black-capped Chickadees together! I guess it's a sign of urbanization because I don't leave in a heavily treed or conifer laden area where nuthatches usually are. But with the more construction and the cutting down of trees the less natural cavities there are for these birds. That's why nestboxes are so vital in the city.  I've added a bird bath (thanks Guy for gifting me with that and the extra bird box). Got seed, suet and nyger so they have a buffet.

I look forward to following the lives of these two families. Now if only my Bewick's Wrens would come back to nest.... :)





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