First Day

I think I'm going to start my next five posts with, "Moving is tougher and longer than I remember." :) Unbelievably, my husband wanted to move us in himself, maybe with a little help from the kids. Thankfully, he gave in to my teases about after-move hospital bills. It was hard enough watching the movers!

The first real day at my place, I got a glimpse of some of my new noisy neighbors. There was a huge chirping commotion outside the window, and lo and behold, there were about 3-4 chestnut backed chickadees in the pine tree right off the balcony.

They made the cutest, strangest call. One of my birding books describes it as a "buzzing" noise, which is fairly accurate, but the buzzing is accompanied by little, quick high notes.

Originally, I thought the buzzing sound was somehow made by the rapid flapping of their little wings, but I was wrong.

I also thought that maybe a parent was feeding a fledgling, but through some internet searching, it seems that this behavior might be a courtship ritual. One of the birds, presumably the female or baby, just sat on a branch and screamed at another bird that would fly out and bring back food. The bird being waited on hand and foot would focus their call directly at the foraging bird. The very specific direction of the calling, or screaming if you prefer, was what made me think it might have been a fledgling-parent relationship. The jury's still out on that, but if anyone knows for certain, give us the scoop!

Daytime Bandit

Walking in to the back room, I noticed a hummingbird fluttering right in front of the window. Of course, I was without camera, but when I got back with the camera, I noticed a shape in the reflection of my shed's window that looked like a raccoon. Then I saw it climbing up my pine tree... and he noticed me, too.





It hesitated climbing up the tree initially because a squirrel, Preggers, was blocking its way. Her nest is in that tree. Eventually, Preggers ran off and silently watched him from a nearby tree.





It got into the tree and settled in, but there was a lot of noise in my yard from all the birds. Its head was flitting around at all the bird calls, so it decided this wasn't the best place for a daytime nap and left. It disappeared like a shadow in the night. I have no idea how it got down because it didn't come back down the trunk.