Baby Chickadees...again!

It's been a busy week, and I haven't had much time for drawing—I'm hoping to remedy that tomorrow—but I just had to re-post my little sketch of my chickadee nesting box because...it's brimming with babies again! 

We hadn't see much action all spring, but suddenly there was a flurry of nest-building activity. Then, I found two tiny chickadee eggs, broken on my porch. I thought that perhaps the nest had been destroyed by another bird or something. (The eggs looked exactly like Jelly Belly "Toasted Marshmallow" jellybeans, cream-colored with brown speckles.)

But, about a week ago, we noticed both parents noisily standing guard in the magnolia trees next to the porch, and constantly flying in and out of the box, which made me think: they have babies! And two days ago, the cheeping started, and goes pretty much non-stop in the daylight hours. Just a few minutes ago, the parents started chirping loudly enough to get my attention at my desk just inside the window. Sure enough, Trixie, the neighbor's cat, was paying a visit. Happily, the box is completely unreachable by a cat, but I shooed her home, all the same. (She's the same one that we've twice caught sitting on the eggs in our chicken coop, so heaven only knows what she had in mind.)

My nesting box was originally a gift from my son (see the original post about him and this sketch here.). You can purchase the exact same one from Wild Birds Unlimited if you're interested.

I've gone online and looked at photos of what is probably taking place in there. This blog has some photos that are exceptionally good. It makes me want to install a little camera of some kind for next year!

Nesting box (at top of photo) as seen from my desk