13
Spring and early summer.
Concord, Mass.
1913

Nesting habits
Feeding young on suet.
Behavior of young fresh from nest
Young chatter like Blackbirds

12. White-breasted Nuthatch. - As usual we had a breeding pair at the Farm.
They nested in the big elm that overhangs the road in front of the house
in a natural beautifully rounded hole entering the west side of a short
horizontal branch 20 feet out from the main trunk and about 40 ft.
above the road. To this they were seen taking nesting material on April   
and food for their young on May 30 [May 30, 1913]. During the entire season both birds
visited the suet lump, hanging in the locust in front of our house, at
frequent intervals through the day. Before they began breeding they often
carried off small fragments of it and cached them under scales of loose
bark, sometimes working steadily thus for hours at a time. On
May 31st [May 31, 1913] & afterwards I saw the [male] taking little pellets of suet to
the nest no doubt to feed the young. This he continued to do for 
half an hour or more. His wot - wot - wot song was not often
heard after the close of April but was occasionally uttered
feebly & listlessly in June. On the morning of June 11 [June 11, 1913] both parents
were seen taking food into the nesting hole. About 5 P.M. next
day (12th [June 12, 1913]) I found them, with their brood, in the large elm by
the wall in our door yard where the [male] was feeding them & every now
and then bursting out into song. On the 15th [June 15, 1913] the whole
family were in the oak grove behind the barn at 8 A.M.
The young kept well together and often in a rather close cluster,
clinging to the rough bark and moving about comparatively little
and behaving awkwardly when doing so, progressing up the
trunk or along a branch by timid, clumsy, jerky hops
fluttering their wings to help maintain their balance. Yet
they could now fly well enough & I saw one of them dart
out after a small moth and capture it on wing with admirable
address. The parents were still feeding them constantly, however.
Whenever they arrived with food the young set up a loud & 
prolonged chattering so very like that of young Blackbirds just
from the nest that both Gilbert and I mistook it for that at first.