Carolina Chickadee, Second Prospect

Today, the Titmice did not come back but a pair of Carolina Chickadees made multiple visits to the nest box to check it out. Danielle and I feel like anxious landlords waiting for nice tenants to sign a lease ... and hoping there are no drive-by shootings by house sparrow thugs.

In the video below, we capture both the inside and outside camera. We have since moved the outside camera closer.

Update 2015-03-16 - Nest building begins today by the Chickadees. We don't know if this is the only nest they are working on. They started with continued investigation of the nestbox. Midday, they started bringing in material. It seems to be only the presumptive female bringing the material. As expected, the base is starting as some sort of moss (color image taken after dark with iPhone slipped into the ventilation slot).

The following video that Danielle put together includes some snippets the action today. The total footage time of birds in the nest box was just over an hour!

Update 2015-03-17 - More progress on the building of a moss base. Brief encounter with female House Sparrow trying to harass the chickadees. The mono-filament line seemed to help as house sparrow was unwilling to land on top of the house.

Update 2015-03-21 - Much nest building activity again on the 18th but nothing since then. Last night, the camera in the owl box failed in the heavy rain. I had to retrofit the way I mounted the camera on both nest boxes. In doing so, I took the opportunity to take a picture of the "completed" moss base.