Last week before our weekend snow, when it was fairly spring like

I went to the nearby park at lunch. I took pictures of a number

of chickadees before I found one working away high up in a poplar.

I assumed it was caching something but it kept working away 

twisting it's body like a little drill it's head completely disappearing

and I kept taking photos. I vaguely thought they inhabited spruce trees

or woodpecker holes in the winter and never gave summer much

thought. Despite having lots of bird books I tend to read up

on less "common"  birds. At some point I began to realize the

chickadee was actually excavating a hole. Of course when

I got back to my office I checked on that Canadian institution

the Hinterland Who's Who.

It was not until I got home I was able to really check the photos.

"Together, they dig out a hole in the rotting wood of a dead stump,

usually about 1 to 3 m above ground. They may also nest 9 to 12 m up

in the dead parts of live trees, or in hollows abandoned by

other hole-nesting birds. "

                          Bird Fact Sheets: Black-capped Chickadee

                                Hinterland Who's Who

"Everywhere

the stream

of life goes on,

and I try to

go with it,

non-swimmer,

paddler in a leaky 

canoe."

                              Notes to My Mother

                                         Linda Pastin