** Jon. Anderson wrote -

<snip>

> Perhaps the chickarees (Tamiasciurus douglasi) or a flying squirrel had
> brought in the moss?

Couldn't be Chickarees. By some interesting sequence of distribution, Red
Squirrels _Tamiasciurus hudsonicus_ only are found on Vancouver Island, not
Douglas'(s) Squirrel. Down at the Stone Bridge at Lost Lagoon in Vancouver, BC's
Stanley Park with Michael Price and Cathy Anoniazzi last week, I was delighted to
watch two Chickarees scramble around for seeds amid the gaggle of introduced E.
Gray Squirrels at the feeders. Apparently a few anyway have learned to stand up to
their bigger cousins.

> Another possibility is that of bees; in my Olympia suburban wasteland of
> a yard, there is a species of native bumblebee that fills the
> wren/chickadee-nesting boxes. I've put up with tree moss. Anyway,
> if there was moss in a cavity, it shouldn't preclude an owl from
> nesting on top of the material.

Agreed.

- Jack




--------------
Jack Bowling
Prince George, BC
jbowling at direct.ca