Checking On the Bird’s Nests

I was able to get back up to our cabin in Door County sooner than I thought and checked on the Black-capped Chickadees nest in our nest boxes.   In my previous post, Who’s In My Nest Boxes, I discovered that chickadees had laid their eggs in the boxes intended for bluebirds.  In the first box there were 6 eggs and the second 11!  I was a little nervous that the older 6 eggs might be too close to becoming fledglings, but I was pretty confident they were still young enough not to make a too early dash from the nest.  So I took a quick peak.

This was just the epitome of cuteness!  Six little immature chickadees.  Mom and Dad were none too happy, so I quickly let them be and didn’t disturb them again.

The other nest was not as far along.  They are clearly newly hatched and instinctively looking for food.  There were still some eggs in the nest and I’m not sure those will hatch or not.

To give you an idea of just how tiny these hatchlings are, I took a picture from the front of the box to give you some scale.

I also have two other birds nesting on the house.  Not near the house, but actually on the house.  On the front porch is an Eastern Phoebe nest.  It’s not uncommon for them to nest in this kind of location.  They often nest on eaves or ledges on structures.  I remember when I was a kid, we came to our cabin one weekend and a Phoebe had made her nest right on the door frame and we couldn’t open the door.  We were able to create a shelf for the nest and the mom didn’t seem to mind at all.

The parents can always be found nearby.

Then just recently a Robin has set up house under the elevated back deck.  I discovered it first by walking out on the deck and scaring her off the nest right below my feet.  Scared me too!

Certainly a lot of excitement from the birds!  Do you have any nests you’re watching?