While David was concentrating his energy on preventing Charles & Harriet, our resident robins, from constructing a nest on the same window molding ledge they used last year (& losing the battle), a sweet little chickadee was unobtrusively setting up housekeeping in an ornamental birdhouse just outside my garden house.
We were thrilled, because we'd never expected any birds to use it. It was mounted on top of an old shovel that was shoved into the ground next to a climbing rose where it's been languishing for at least 10 years, sadly in need of redecorating. No one's taken up residence in it before, so we were doubly surprised when we saw mama chickadee busily flying in & out.
We don't know exactly when she moved in, & her comings & goings were so quick it took a while to determine what kind of bird she was. Every time I went to the garden house, though, I tried to take a good look without approaching too closely, because I could see it would upset her. When I saw a chickadee flitting from tree limb to tree limb & rapidly scolding me as I entered the garden house I knew she was our tenant.
Once she got the nest ready, which she did by entering through the bottom hole, she plugged up that hole with moss & began using the "upstairs" entrance through the little heart. I'm so glad to see a real birdhouse getting use after all these years. Little joys matter.
A few years ago a hapless little chickadee built a nest on the ground next to one of my climbing roses, which I discovered while weeding the garden. There were eggs in the nest that day, but when I looked about a week later, sadly, there were only some tiny down feathers scattered around the nest, & I knew the feral cats had been at work.
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