Anne, congratulations on the chickadees, the cutest (and friendliest) of the cute. Pruning dead wood now makes more sense than trying to prune it out when even the live canes look dead, I think. No harm in pruning if there's no activity around the nests, which there would be right now if they were being used. Many bird species don't use the same nesting places from one year to the next, or even salvage the materials. Other species build decoy or preliminary nests that never get used (bush-tits do this). In addition to watching the behavior of the birds, if there is a question, biologists use a mirror attached to an extension pole to check nests for eggs when the birds are away to see if they are seriously using a nest or just "hanging around". Guidelines for creating habitat for birds frequently mention including thorny and/or dense shrubs to provide refuges from predators. Plus, from a "natural selection" point of view, it seems intuitive that birds nesting in thorny shrubs would be more likely to fledge offspring. On the Las Pilitas Nursery website, in the entry for Ribes speciosum (fuchsia-flowered gooseberry, as thorny as 'Mermaid', worse than barbwire, but I love it), the author talks about how the hummingbird lives in his for two months of the year, and can use the tufts of cat hair stuck on the spines to build a nest. Alister Stella Grey is dense and armed and no cat (or Cooper's hawk) goes there, for sure. Debbie

Owls. There have always been great horned owls in our neighborhood, but this year they had babies, and I had two owlets living in a tree in my back yard. For the first time in many many years, I had no destruction to my hosta. On the down side, the owlets did not always finish their supper, and there were some 'leftovers' around my yard. But honestly, our neighborhood has SO MANY rabbits that it was a welcome relief. I still haven't seen any in my yard, which is very unusual. I am creating some inviting owl nesting areas for next spring! NOTE: Don't encourage owls if you have very small dogs.

lol-harryshoe or is it hairyshoe? Great picture. I'll bet that was wonderful to see them from your window. I've seen nesting GHOs and also a pair that hunts at night over my friend's property. They're beautiful.

Awww, it's an owlet in the pot! Thanks for the link, Mark. Rachel, We were watching a red tailed hawk nest one year and the next spring I caught a glimpse of movement in the same nest. We took our binocs and hiked out to see the 'hawks' again. The nest was occupied by a GHO family. The mom about scared me to death when I finally focused in and saw her aggravated stare! Our observation is that they will use existing nests to raise their brood. It was a huge stick nest too. Pam