We had a Vaux's swift circling over our yard this afternoon, and a Common Yellowthroat at one of our ponds, both first for the yard. We are located off South Bay Road, Olympia.

We put out a tray feeder with cracked corn and sunflower seeds a few days ago, and a pair of Scrub Jays have been visiting the yard a dozen or more times a day since, rather than their occasional appearance prior to putting out the corn.

Also, wondering if folks have watched chickadees nest building with nest box cams, whether our observations the last month are unusual? We have a chestnut-backed chickadee pair showing interest in a nest box with a camera. We had wood chips in the bottom of the box, and on March 13 one bird started removing chips from the box, and was seen inside the box on March 23, 24, 30, 31. On April 7 a bird started bringing in nesting material, and over the last week has brought in material, then removed it all again, several times. Video footage showing some of the nest building is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/89985360 at N00/ From watching the birds it seems as if they are not satisfied with the nesting material or the way it doesn't hold together or stick to the inside of the box or to other material. I understand chickadees use spider webs to hold nest material together - I wonder whether the cold spell we had in late March set the spiders back to the point where there just isn't a lot of web material available for holding nests together?

thanks,

Robin Baird
Olympia, WA
rwbaird (at) cascadiaresearch.org