Bird Nests Galore

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.

The very beginning of nest building

The pair of Jays gathered twigs from nearby bushes and placed them carefully like pick-up-sticks.

Gathering twigs for the nest

After a few days work, the nest was miraculously completed. Unfortunately, we have no view of the interior.

The completed nest

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

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.

Mother chickadee returning with food for her chicks

We hear chicks peeping loudly inside the birdhouse while the parents enter and exit

Chickadee protecting his house with chicks inside, while I snap pictures nearby

Another mom sitting on her nest, also made of twigs, outside Jeanette's house in Walnut Creek

                              HAPPY EARLY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL