Chickadee House Update

You may recall back in April I reported on a new chickadee house I built and put up in one of the apple trees in our back yard. It was hard to tell if the chickadees were actually nesting in it this time. One day we'd see mama and papa going back and forth to the nest, sometimes carrying nesting materials. Other times, it seemed we wouldn't see them for days.

I wasn't absolutely sure they used the box until yesterday morning. I put a ladder up and tapped on the box first. If you hear peeps that means the chicks are still inside. No peeps, so I opened up the box and found this nest.

They seem to have used some kind of animal fur for the top layer. The bottom seems to be made from wood shavings, or maybe shredded palm tree leaves. Pretty neat, huh? Now that the box is cleaned out, they'll hopefully come back to nest in it again next year.