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Fletcher Wildlife Garden | all galleries >> Previous FWG blogs >> 2010 Blogs >> FWG blog: April 2010 > Black-capped chickadee excavating nest hole
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05-APR-2010 Christine Hanrahan

Black-capped chickadee excavating nest hole

There were two pairs of chickadees excavating nest holes. Both the male and the female were working on the excavation. Sometimes they'd chuck out the soft wood with their feet, but mostly they gathered mouthfuls and flew a short distance where they deposited it on branches from where it would disperse in the wind. Every year they do this at FWG, and invariably one or two of the snags they choose fall over. One year, after this happened, they moved to a nearby nest box.

There were lots of house finches and goldfinches singing, many robins, red-winged blackbirds, a few song sparrows, starlings singing, a raven circling the garden, crows harassing the raven, etc. I hadn't been to FWG for five days and fully anticipated seeing tree swallows as I've seen them in good numbers elsewhere in the city. But then, they usually do take a bit longer to arrive at FWG! Nor did I see any eastern phoebes, another bird I was expecting, for again, I've heard and seen them elsewhere in the city. No doubt phoebes were around and I just didn't see them.

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Gillian07-Apr-2010 12:00
How very endearing! Hopefully they'll be successful in raising some healthy "chicklets". V
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