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| Steller's Jay perching on our deck railing, surveying the area for a nesting site |
Last spring chestnut-backed chickadees built a nest in
this birdhouse. This year they're back. And in addition a pair of steller's jays have built a nest in the rafters above our basement deck directly under the upstairs deck, only a few feet above the chickadee's birdhouse. The nest started with a few precarious twigs placed on a diagonal brace.
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| The very beginning of nest building |
The pair of Jays gathered twigs from nearby bushes and placed them carefully like pick-up-sticks.
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| Gathering twigs for the nest |
After a few days work, the nest was miraculously completed. Unfortunately, we have no view of the interior.
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| The completed nest |
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| Jay facing his nest in the rain—on squirrel alert |
There is also squirrel activity on the deck, much to the consternation of the jays
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| The curious squirrel peaks in our kitchen window |
Meanwhile, the chickadee chicks have hatched and are peeping hungrily inside the birdhouse. Both parents fly to and frow, in and out, bringing food to their noisy young. If I come near the swaying house they flutter around making warning calls.
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| Mother chickadee returning with food for her chicks |
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| We hear chicks peeping loudly inside the birdhouse while the parents enter and exit |
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| Chickadee protecting his house with chicks inside, while I snap pictures nearby |
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| Another mom sitting on her nest, also made of twigs, outside Jeanette's house in Walnut Creek |
HAPPY EARLY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL
