birds came to me this weekend

I was buried in home renos this weekend so I didn't make it out, even though the weather was pretty awesome (barring Sunday night...we came pretty close to a flash flood here...). On Saturday though, we had a very loud drummer behind the house...a pileated was hanging out in a tree just outside the yard. It took off but was back again today...I'm hoping it sticks around!

I'm also almost positive that I saw a small hawk in my neighbours yard, but I scared it off. It wouldn't surprise me with all the critters that visit my feeders! So it's been pretty exciting around here.

A neighbour of mine built a bird house and had residents (chickadees) for the first time last year (again, probably a result of my feeding them a few doors down). I mentioned to him that he should remove the old nesting material so birds won't think it is already "claimed" when they arrive in spring and so that it's nice and clean for them. So he actually took it out and saved it to show me. There was one teeny tiny unhatched egg. I mean, you see robin eggs and have an idea of those, but chickadees are obviously much smaller and so are their eggs! Also the nest is kind of interesting because it's completely flat--it basically just lined the bottom of the house. Neato...so I took some pics. Including one with a dime for scale!

I've been keeping an eye on this map that follows the hummingbird migration. This is an awesome idea! Won't be much longer!