These baby chickadees are off to a great start in life. They’ll be flying away soon and I can’t imagine what their future holds. Five tiny nestlings, five different futures.
They’ve had the very good fortune to have hatched inside a nest box provided by our dear friend, nature lover Greg Grant. Outside a beautiful, wild landscape is waiting for them that seems lifted out of a storybook.
When Greg told me they were chickadees, I was amazed. I hadn’t realised a chickadee was a real bird – I thought it was just an affectionate folk name for all birds, like dickybirds. Or crickaballs as my sister used to call them (there’s a story behind that but I won’t go into it now).
I’ll show you a glimpse of Greg’s garden outside the nest box in the next few weeks: I’ve been meaning to for far too long. Setting aside all his other credentials, he’s one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met.
In case that description makes him wrinkle up his nose, I can also vouch for him being a man of action. He heroically saved me by taking immediate action when he spotted that fire ants were swarming up my leg. I had put my foot on a mound while trying to get a picture of a rose. Not a single one bit me.
I think this is the rose, though Greg may be able to correct me:
So that’s my promise for the future, made as a response to this week’s photo challenge. Make sure you hold me to it!
Susan Rushton 
Lovely interpretation and such beautiful rose.
Chickadees. I also thought they were just a name for birds. So they are a real thing. They all look very cozy in that box. But I am sure once they are ready, they will be eager and happy to explore the world around them. Beautiful shot of the rose too. Luckily Greg spotted those fire ants and thankfully you are okay 🙂
They do look very cosy. I’m sure I have even more to thank him for than I understand, never having been bitten by one.
At our home, which I have affectionately dubbed the little house in the big woods, our backyard is positively aflutter with chickadees. But as a dear friend once noted, in Maine, chickadees are plentiful but never common. So enjoyed that photo of the babies. In my 57 years of living in Maine, I have never seen a chickadee nest with babies.
‘Plentiful but never common’ – I like that!
I also forgot to mention that chickadees are Maine’s state bird. Now how could I have forgotten that?
English counties don’t have birds – I think we should! There has recently been a vote on England’s bird, won by the robin, but I don’t know if it’s official.
Oh so cute to see the chickadees picture. I wish them the best future possible.
Me too!
Me too! I call my small girl ‘chickadee’ but only had the vaguest notion of their actual existence. Sweet.
It’s a lovely name for a little girl.
Oh too cute!! We have similar birds here called Marsh Tits and I always thought that chickadee was just a nickname for them over there. Since joining WordPress I have been illuminated on all these misconceptions! Like I also thought that a Grackle was what West Country folk in the UK called starlings.
I’ve never heard of a Grackle but it’s a good word. In some ways it’s more disconcerting when the birds are called the same names but are different creatures. If someone cries ‘A robin!’ when I’m in the US, I’m always secretly disappointed to see the bird. Ours are smaller, fluffier, friendlier and frankly orange, but they’re the ones that all the robin mythology is bound up in for me.
Grackles are US birds too! As are chickadees 🙂 Yes, the American Robin is actually a type of thrush! Ours would never flock together 😉 I did see a mated couple together today which was rather lovely!
Our robins to indeed flock together in areas where they winter, like here in Mississippi. Our native chickadee is the Carolina chickadee, which loves to hang around with tufted titmice in noisy little throngs.
You might enjoy this RSPB entry which has pictures and the song of the UK robin.
Sweet chickadees! 5 is a good nest result – must be your friends’ good oversight. 🙂
I somehow imagine you’re cut from the same cloth.
🙂
We have Chickadees here in Newfoundland and they are so cute. Did you know that they take sunflower seeds(at least that’s what I feed them) and hide them in trees and branches and somehow have the ability to go back in the forest and find each and every seed! Wish my memory were as good😊 Thank you for a lovely post.
I didn’t, but you’ve created great pictures in my head. It’s a lot more sensible than hiding them in the ground!
They look very comfy and cared for. I didn’t know they were a bird either. 😃 such a beautiful rose, I bet the perfume is lovely ..
Greg is a rose rustler, so my guess is it will be a good one!
Sweet little chickadees! Beautiful roses.
A country idyll!
Oh my! What a beautiful photo of these precious fledglings! I love chicadees the most of all the birds who live around my house. They are here year round, and I’m always thrilled to see them in winter when so many other birds migrate! Thank you for sharing this picture. I’ve never seen the little ones; only those which visit after they’ve grown and changed color! Although, now I’m uncertain if there are many kinds of Chicadees, as I the ones here are always referred to as Black capped Chicadees. Hmmm. I’ll have to look that up.
I feel even more fortunate to have seen them since reading thoughtful comments like this one.
I just put a bag of cat fur and alpaca fur that the chickadees and others will take.. as soon as it stops snowing and being December instead of April here in NY..
They’ll appreciate it all the more for it being cold!