Chickadees

 

Chestnut-backed Chickadee in Oak Woodlands, Golden Gate Park

When I recently found out one of my neighbors had put up a nest box for chickadees, I immediately decided to do the same thing next year. My neighbor's first nest box was installed in his oak tree, where it was taken over by squirrels, so I'll have to consider that. Just yesterday I watched as four different squirrels chased each other through my neighbors' yards and my own. I think it will be tricky to find a place the chickadees will like that the squirrels won't be able to commandeer.

This week is the anniversary of the death of our cat, Fuzzy Girl (aka Coco), so my wife got us a reservation later today at KitTea Cat Lounge. I'm sure it will take a great effort of will to keep from adopting one or more of the rescue cats there. It wouldn't be very good timing anyway, as we're going to be caring for my wife's mother soon and will have little or no spare time for either cats or nature photography. I'll have to put a pause on posting for likely the rest of the year, beginning in mid-June. In lieu of new work, I might post pages from my Mt. Tam book, and maybe a couple of other ongoing book projects that I look forward to working on again eventually. 

There was one or two noisy baby chickadees in the woods begging for food, but the adults were chirping too, and I can't recall if this one on the dried stalk of an old bee plant is one or the other.

I liked how the lichen was draped as if wind-blown behind the chickadee.

The one on the left is being fed by the one on the right.

Not very good shots of the brown creeper I saw on Whiskey Hill, but I include them anyway since I see these birds so rarely.

Apparently they do nest here in the city, at least in places like the Presidio.

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