A bit from last year: Nestlings and a peculiar nest

Just a taste of 2015 as we move into 2016:

Well, this isn't exactly the beginning....not by a long shot.  The beginning of my work on bushtits was spring of 1986 in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona.  But that's a long story.

That's not what this blog is about anyway.  This blog is about the 2015 season in Discovery Park and the daily ups and downs of studying the cutest and one of the most interesting birds in the world:  the American Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus).

It's late and I'm starting this on a whim, so I will simply recap today's adventures and fill you in on the last 3 weeks in future entries.

Yesterday I was watching a nest in a beautiful flowering crabapple tree right on the edge of the parking lot at the visitor's center.  The male and the female at this nest have always been pretty vocal with their "spit-spitting" but yesterday was a little different.  I had thought they were incubating and when bushtits incubate the mom and dad take turns sitting in the nest (more about the nests later....spectacular).  But these two weren't doing that.  They were both foraging and spitting (what I call their contact calls) loudly as they flitted about, hanging upside-down and eating micro bugs from the branch tips as they are wont to do.

Every once in awhile the female would slip away to the nest for 5-10 minutes and the male and I would be left alone to keep each other company.  I'd think  "Ah!  she's back on the nest!"  But then she'd show up again to forage with her mate some more.  He also made some brief forays to the nest. Puzzling.

It wasn't until I got home that I realized how stupid I was being.  Of course, they must be feeding nestlings.  And the bugs they are bringing are so small we can't even see them.  That's typical on hatch day.  Bushtits are small (about the weight of an American quarter) and their eggs are tiny.  The itty bitty naked nestling that hatches is about the size of a pencil eraser and has a silly topknot of fuzz and can only eat tiny gnat-sized bugs.

I was unprepared for nestlings this early, but thinking (and counting) back, I realized that we saw mating at several nests just over 2 weeks ago.  Six days to lay a clutch and 12-13 days to incubate and.....nestlings.

So this morning I was anxious to get out to see if I was right.  Long story short:  yes.  I clearly saw a small green caterpillar in the female's beak as she entered the nest.  And they were each staying inside for 10 minutes or so.   Young nestlings that still needed some warmth from mom and dad.

The next nest we checked (so-called "toilet paper" because the birds have managed to incorporate a great deal of toilet paper into the bottom of the nest --- which is not smart as toilet paper dissolves in rain) was also now feeding nestlings.

So, the game is afoot!  I wasn't sure I'd be here long enough to see feeding nests.  But I am.  And feeding nests are likely to have helpers.  IF there are helpers this far north.  No one yet knows and perhaps I'll find that out this year.

So two nests are feeding nestlings.   By the way, we have found 25 active nests so far in the park this year.  Most are incubating or so we think.