Ha Ha Ha, Hee Hee Hee, ROTFLMAO! I knew that was a joke at my expense, y'all! But I have to admit, for a moment there, I thought you were serious! If it HAD been true, it would have been okay, because I am protecting my tomato plants like a Mama Bear - do they eat tomatos BTW? What would have been so funny about imagining I was flushing my tomatos, now?????? LOL Actually, caterpillar frass is a good organic fertilizer, and is listed as such on a website that notes various NPK of things. I dump my containers of frass from raising hornworms on my garden. So, put that image in your head now.....giggle! Other signs to look for: 1. When the caterpillars are small, the frass will look like the leaf has been sprinkled with pepper. As the cats get bigger, so goes the frass. Bigger cat, bigger poop. 2. When small, the foliage will have a small hole where the egg hatchs. Before they eat any foliage, newly hatched cats are white and are about 1/2" long. As they eat, they turn green with their consumption of leaves. 3. Early damage appears as chewed leaf edges, from the outside leaf margin, and then inward toward the vein. The first couple of instars of growth, they don't eat the veins, but as they get larger, they will consume the entire leaf. 3. Sometimes you can find them by noting a leaf that is hanging down lower than the others. The weight of a large hornworm will do that. 4. Often you'll find them in a position where their first 3 prolegs are raised up, and that position is what gave them their common name of "sphinx". I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all, but if you take the time to really look at them closely, they really are beautiful caterpillars. It's hard, I know, because I don't find much beauty in say, WASPS - Yikes! But I try...... You don't have to like something to appreciate its beauty. It truly makes me wonder at God's creations. Susan

I have two bluebirds in my backyard. They are feeding the little one in the birdhouse. They have been here for two week. One of them has just begun tapping on my doors and windows. Then flying to the birdbath, then flying to the feeder and back and forth. The birdbath was empty and so was the feeder. Now both are full and he is still tapping on my windows. He comes to a window, then to the birdhouse, and back and forth. Is he trying to communicate something? Also, last summer, there was a bird that tapped on my front door in the night, I could see him through the partial glass. He would not see his reflection at night. What could be the reason for that behavior? Barby

Thanks for looking everyone! I hope that I'll be able to get many more photos as the season progresses. Mike: Agreed that the hole is a bit large. What happens is that because I leave the boxes up over the winter, woodpeckers enlarge the hole and then use the box to roost in. I have had downy woodpeckers and nuthatches use them for roosting. What I do is leave the box alone, until after the bluebird or chickadee has laid its first egg. Then I'll put on a hole reducer of appropriate size. If you look closely, you can see holes left from the screws where a hole reducer has previously been in place. I take it off after nesting is over, so the winter birds can use it again. I haven't had a problem with raccoons, but I will take your suggestion and look into putting a predator guard on the hole as well. Donna: Correct that it is a smaller baffle. I do have some ducting sheet metal that I can secure around the bottom of the post which will give it additional protection. Ann: Thanks for the info. It has been unseasonably warm here as well. So far the bluebirds seem to be sticking around, busy adding pine needles and aggressively defending the box, but if they don't then I'll keep my fingers crossed for the next wave to come through! Last time I had bluebirds nest in my yard was a few years ago, and it was later in the summer.

You removed a Chickadee nest?? Why on earth would you remove a Chickadee nest?? They are very low on the totem pole as far as successful nestings since they cannot fight off larger cavity nesters, plus they usually only have one brood per season so they need all the help they can get. I LOVE Dees! I have had them nesting here for the last three years and I would never never remove one of their nests!! I protect them as much as I could and if a Blue pair wanted the box that a Dee already had then I would put a hole reducer on the box so the Blues couldn't have it! I have tons of TRES that take all the boxes around here but I haven't removed any of their nests either, just keep hoping the Blues find an empty box and nest. The Blues around here are always the last to start nesting so they get what is left pretty much of the nestboxes. I have one pair of Blues, one pair of Dees and six pairs of TRES all nesting right now. Blues love mealworms but as far as getting them to stay in your yard and nest, there is no guarantee. The male finds the nesting sites but the female needs to approve of it. She makes the final pic. If she likes the nestbox she will stay...if they found something better elsewhere they will go there. Alot depends on the availability of nestboxes around your area. If they have lots to choose from they could go anywhere but if there aren't alot of spots for them to choose from then maybe they will choose your yard. However if you aren't prepared to let other native cavity nesters use the nestboxes you put up then you shouldn't be offering nestboxes. Oh and hopefully all your nestboxes are mounted on slick metal poles (conduit works best) with predator baffles and at least 15 feet away from trees or fences. Donna