Columbia (Swansfield), Howard County, 5 Feb. 2005

I saw a White-breasted Nuthatch carrying bits of bark in its beak and 
placing the bark pieces into a natural hole in a deciduous tree.  It 
looked exactly like the nest-building behavior of a pair of nuthatches 
I'd confirmed in the same neighborhood during the first year of the 
atlas. Even the hole in the tree was the same type!

But why would a nuthatch start building a nest in February -- according 
to the yellow book it's two months too early.  Do nuthatches build dummy 
nests?  Do young ones 'practice'?  Have this particular bird's hormones 
revved up abnormally early?

-- 
June Tveekrem
Columbia, Howard Co, MD
tweekiebird AT toadmail DOT com