On The Wing
By Jill Dinsmore

The Land of Nursery Rhymes

April brings the primrose sweet
Scatters daisies at our feet

I don’t have just one favorite bird – I enjoy them all – from crows, herons, hawks to wrens and sparrows. –But if I did have just one favorite bird – I think the black capped chickadee might just come in first place. All year long we are privileged to see them at our feeders, no matter if it is below zero or 90 degrees – their friendly conversation greets you. To attract them to your garden, you need trees, balsam firs, locust, birch seeds and buds, butternuts, blue berries, raspberries and even the berries of poison ivy and of course suet – they love suet and sunflower seeds and peanuts. However it is interesting to note that they do not depend on our feeders – they will still gather most of their feed from the wild, so if you are not at home and cannot put out seed each day, don’t be too concerned, they will survive. What is so impressive about these little birds is their metabolism, they can weigh next to nothing first thing in the morning and the same birds may be bulging fat by afternoon. They can also slow their metabolism down on cold winter nights – slowing their heart beats, breathing, and energy consumption.

Chickadees breed from March to July. Their nests are holes in soft or rotting wood and dead stumps. SO PLEASE – not only for them but woodpeckers also – leave some old dead trees around. They share in the excavation of the cavity, carrying the wood chips away from the site and dropping them. But the female makes the nest herself of moss, vegetable fibers, cinnamon fern, (I wonder if that is to keep it smelling nice?) feathers, dog hair, etc. There is a 13/8 inch entrance hole and usually the nest is from 4 to 15 feet from the ground. They do accept nesting boxes also. They lay from 5-8 eggs, white and reddish brown spots. Incubation is from 12 to 13 days and this is done by the female alone with the male feeding her on the nest. The parents feed the youth for 16 days and then they chase them off to find a territory of their own.