Three weeks ago I wrote about a pair of Hutton's Vireo constructing a nest on Canemah Bluff in Oregon City.  Several return trips to the area to document the nesting behavior have proved fruitless.  I believe the vireo found a more suitable location to build their nest.  A choice I agree with because of the slight to nonexistent canopy overhead - yeah I know I am not a bird but the nest did appear to be quite exposed.

Gratefully, my most recent visit to the bluff yielded another uncommon opportunity to observe nesting behavior. While sitting quietly off-trail in dense timber waiting for an unknown bird to resume excavation of a large (round) cavity located just two meters above the ground on a large dead fir tree; a pair of Brown Creeper caught my attention with their repeat visits to the same location on a small snag.

Saturday morning was dark and damp, so I held little hope of capturing good photos of anything, let alone a quick-moving little brown bird in dense timber without a shred of sunlight making it to the forest floor. Nevertheless, the Brown Creeper's activity persuaded me to move into position and watch what they were doing for about one hour instead of maintaining my vigil on the big hole near the bottom of a tree.  My patience was rewarded - as it turns out this nest location gets great light at the right time of the morning, so hopefully, we have been given another chance to observe and document the nesting behavior of another common yet well camouflaged species.

Unfortunately I also have concerns about the viability of this particular nest.  From what I was able to learn from Birds of Oregon, a general reference,  and Birds of North America (online), a positive correlation seems to exist between successfully fledging young and size of the tree in which the nest is built.  The smaller the diameter of the tree (as measured at breast height) the less chance of successfully fledging young. I believe this tree is at the lower end of the range of diameters of trees known to yield successful nests.

Nest building takes about a week, followed by an incubation period of roughly two weeks, and then finally the young fledge about two weeks after hatching.  So if all goes well, we'll have a 5-6 young Brown Creeper showing-off for us May 25-26.  The good news is that young stay close to the nest for a few days after fledging, and often roost together before disbursing.

Keep your fingers crossed.