I sent out a link earlier to my chickadee nest box camera (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFpNbBn5UBc in case you missed it!) Someone from another forum responded and said that a second brood is rare for chickadees, with only about 5% of pairs attempting second broods, and that they aren't well documented. This is definitely a second brood and not a replacement, since the first brood fledged (successfully as far as I could tell) on June 4. I expected that bluebirds would move into the box afterward, since that's what happened last year. Sometime during the week after the first brood fledged, I noticed a new nest and then 5 eggs appeared. That's when I decided to put up the camera. The nest is much shallower than I've seen in the past, and usually I would expect closer to 10 eggs. The process of nest building and egg laying seemed to move much more quickly than I've previously observed. I'll keep posting new videos as interesting things happen (right now it's pretty much all the same - just a lot of preening, stretching and snoozing.)
-- Liz liz at lizstanley.com Backyard weather and feedercam: http://www.overlookcircle.org/ Photo gallery: http://www.pbase.com/gymell/liz_favorites
