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chickadeeonfeeder.gifWhile I know I’ll never be a professional wildlife photographer, like Michael Runtz, I am very happy that I managed to snap this shot of a black capped chickadee on the feeder outside my office window.

For the last month or so, there’s been a pair of these little guys hanging out in our back yard fighting the bullying house sparrows and extremely rude starlings for their turn at the feeder. The chickadees are even smaller than many of the sparrows and more often than not, the bullies chase away the chickadees. And if it isn’t the sparrows then it’s the tank-sized starlings who tell the little chickadees to get lost.

But after being knocked back one too many times, these little fighters fly in quick, startle their nut-munching adversaries and manage to grab their share of the food. And once they get their claws into that feeder, it takes the pestering of more than one sparrow and starling to get a lone chickadee to leave. This fight for the feeder happens repeatedly throughout the day and it’s better than any reality show on the TV.

When the chickadees are through battling for their dinner, they then entertain all within earshot with their songs that take me right back to the woods of Algonquin Park and fill my head with distant memories of Hinterland Who’s Who spots. Listen to the chickadee’s song and tell me if it doesn’t put you in a canoe paddling along the shores of a northern Ontario lake.

Now, if we could just do something about the sounds of the two MASSIVE home renovation projects going on next door to us, I might be able to forget I’m in the city all together.