Last year a pair of Eastern Phoebes made a nest on an  angled pipe under the gutter about 6ft from our front door. For nest material, they used some lovely fresh green moss that had wrapped some plants sent by a friend in Oregon. It’s always worth putting out potential nest material in spring, along with food.

Sadly, raccoons or blue jays destroyed the nest. But this year they’re back, in the same place. We’ve tried to use the other door to leave them in peace and this time two youngsters have fledged. The picture shows the second of them – I just stepped outside the front door, snapped, and stepped back in again. It’s not quite up to the standard of the pictures found at mostlymacro, but it’s good to see.

Oddly enough, no sooner had the second chicks fledged than both parents and youngsters completely vanished. Strange…