Chickadees and our Pussy Willow

     While sitting at my writing desk behind a window on the second floor of our house, I am seeing a pair of Carolina chickadees flitting from twig to twig on a tall pussy willow shrub just feet from me.  They are lively, cute, interesting and so close I could almost touch them.  They are five inches long and gray with black caps and bibs.  And they are permanent residents in my neighborhood the year around. 
     Several years ago, I bought a few pussy willow twigs to be spring indoor decor, but put those twigs in a jar of water.  I gradually added soil to the water as the twigs grew leaves above the water and roots below it.  I always wonder how those twigs knew where to grow what.
     When the jar contained mud instead of water and the twigs had several leaves and roots each, I planted those twigs in a sunny spot in our yard and watered them a couple of weeks to get them started.  Over the years, some of the pussy willow limbs grew as tall as our two-story house and  within a couple feet of the house, making it neat to see their dull-reddish buds on naked branches in winter and fuzzy, gray catkins in the beginning of March.  
     Meanwhile, we have had a pair of Carolina chickadees, but not always the same individuals, in our neighborhood for years.  They've nested some years in house wren boxes on our lawn in summer and come to feeders in winter.  And within the last few years, a pair of them have been going in and out of an old, unused dryer vent hole in a side of the house under the pussy willow.  The vent is only a few inches deep because of it being paneled over inside the house.  It is too shallow to be a nesting cavity, but one or both of those chickadees might use it as nightly quarters in winter.  That hole would be warmed by the heat in the house.  But whatever draws those chickadees to that dryer vent, I enjoy their close up, everyday presence.  Those pretty, little birds use pussy willow twigs as a staging area, often within six feet of me, before fluttering to the hole.  They are two of our closest wildlife neighbors.  And the combination of the chickadees and furry catkins is absolutely beautiful.  They are pretty beyond description. 
     Many readers may have wildlife they see daily close to home, too.  Those wild creatures help make life more interesting and bearable.