If at all possible, I will try to get a video. He was on top of the nest box just outside my kitchen window and facing the main tomato garden. Wrens are great for keeping tomato plants bug-free. He's hopping up and down on top of the box. Sometimes with both feet, sometimes on first the left foot - hop, hop, hop - and then the right foot - hop, hop, hop. Sometimes his hops take him up a couple inches; sometimes a foot or more. He has both wings dropped down with his head bobbing. Then holds first one wing and then the other out at various angles and contortions...all the while doing the multi-footed polka, and singing his fool heart out the entire time. He flies straight up a couple feet and then zig-zags back down to the nest box top. Again, singing that fool heart out. I expected him to have a major coronary at any second. She looked at him; she looked in the box, (a very fine Coveside chickadee box, with slate squirrel guard, by the way) did the birdy version of an eye roll, and zoomed off. Her mama raised her better than to hang out with that sort of boy. But then...good girls and bad boys...we know how that story plays out at times!

Do the birds not mind you "messing" with their homes? What a wonderful hobby you have and how grateful your birds must be to you!

Yay! Welcome home, little ones! I'm waiting for the subbies to arrive. My first adults arrived 2/29, right on schedule. I haven't been counting but I think we're up to about 40 pairs. They're starting to build nests and I expect green leaves to be pulled off the pear tree (their favorite) soon.

And now I interrupt the "end of the season" blues... ... to report about 20 Purple Martins are over my front yard and gourd rack right now. They are zooming around, soaring, circling, calling and chattering, and all-in-all being absolutely delightful. Even without grabbing the binoculars I could make out a few newly-fledged PMs bumbling along. I don't think these are "my" birds. They've been overhead for about an hour. Then they began dive-bombing and zooming by the gourds as fast as they could. After 15 minutes of that, two got brave enough to land and look inside a few of the gourds. Now there is a new fledge perched on the top pulley, as high up as he can get. He's chattering and bobbing, puffing up and looking all around in a very proprietorial way. Fledges all look the same, but I'm certain this is male. He's going to be a real (but delightful) pest next season as a SY, and an awesome beauty the next. Could he be the one to help produce my first 8-egg nest? It's August 13, three days past their latest departure date ever, and they are still being very good medicine.