Bird Return?

Some of you may remember the saga of the bushtit family last year as I documented for a couple of months the nest building, home maintenance, food delivery and fledging.

The other day I noticed this lone clematis clinging to the vine near where the bushtit nest still hangs (though in need of some repairs). You can see the nest in this photo at the bottom right. My overactive imagination believes the flower is a claim stake, like a flag planted, for the bushtits who will hopefully return this spring to raise another family. It takes a couple of months for them to build a nest from scratch, so this foundation might save them a lot of time and work. I told Laurie she needs to be extra careful to not wreck the nest when she cuts back the vine.