Nest Construction

Yesterday, the construction phase began in earnest.  The female gathered sticks for the nest all day.

Initially, she was not comfortable with the dogs in the backyard while she was trying to build, and she fluttered to the rooftop to guage how much of a threat they were. 

A female sparrow was hanging around as well. 

Sadie was very curious about the fluttering and chirping around the nestbox.



Eventually, the female went ahead with her business despite Sadie's presence. 

The male watched over her.  At one point, when he felt the sparrow was getting too close, he chased it out of the backyard. 

Mom is taking a breather here.  I'm sure construction is exhausting!

Later in the afternoon, the pair surprised me by looking inside my back door.  The female landed on an edge of the backdoor, and the male landed on a patio chair just outside.  By the time it registered with me that they were there, it also registered with the dogs, and they went bananas and scared them away.  I guess they were tired of me watching them all of the time and decided to see how I liked it!

This is the current status of the nest:

It looks almost complete!