My husband and I were in the back yard recently, and saw our resident black-capped chickadee family checking out a gourd bird house we put out for them.

First, they enlarged the opening a touch.

Then mama chickadee checked out the inside.

She brought some bedding in to see how it worked with the decor.

It was good, but something about the gourd just wasn’t quite right. They abandoned this nest, and have set up housekeeping somewhere else.

But it was fun to watch them check it out.