Two springtime observations that I was not previously aware of:
1. My neighbor's ornamental cherry tree had 4 flickers in it the other
morning. They were bowing to each other and fanning their tails, which
showed the red shafts at the base. This was accompanied by a call of
chucka-chucka-chucka-chuck, not the loud wicker-wicker. There were 2
more flickers in another nearby tree that were not overtly participating
in the festivities.
2. I wasn't aware that chickadees actually duet. There was a pair in the
yard singing their springtime dee-dee 2 note call. After one sang dee-dee,
the second sang dee-dee a half or a whole note lower (I'm not sure which
musically), so that the whole song was an unbroken dee-dee-dee-dee. I was
always under the impression that just one bird was singing all of the notes,
but in this instance, half of the bird was across the street from the
other half.

"The flowers that bloom in the spring, tra-la, bring promise of merry
sunshine."

Tom Weir
weir at u.washington.edu
(206)747-8480