Hi Tweets,

It always surprises me when I see the activity in my Seattle urban yard. This spring the yard has become somewhat of an avian nursery, pre-school, and rest stop. The black-capped chickadees that usually nest in the yard, opted to nest in a birch across the street but the adults 'raise' this year's fledgelings in my yard. Last year's leucitic chickadee disappeared during nesting season but has reappeared after about 3 months absence much to my delight.

A pair of robins did nest in the yard and after weeks of crows targeting the yard trying to figure out where the nest was - had 3 fledgelings. The robins kept the young in the yard but have now moved on; hopefully in neighboring yards. After the robins fledged I checked the nest and found a layer of stone pits. Odd? No idea what berries but they were rather large-ish I thought for a robin. No fruit just pits.

A willow flycatcher and a young spotted towhee visited the yard during late spring and beginning of summer.

Lastly, a downy woodpecker just arrived with its fledged youngster (which spurned this email). Alas, the youngster took off and the adult is calling for it (with food in it's beak). Sure they are not far from each other.

The bushtits, absent for most of the nesting period, are back en masse with young of the year as well.

Hope you are all enjoying the nesting season in your yards or elsewhere.

AKopitov
Seattle




AMK17