No No kitty! Bad Kitty! I keep having to run neighbors cats away from the bird nests in the Bradford pear trees. Ellie, this is the third brood they've had in the house this year alone. They must like it. And I have one of those "See Rock City" birdhouses too. kay

So sorry Judy, I know how you feel. I've been used to 3 or 4 broods of bluebirds a year to watch with my video cam boxes. Last year, there was 1 bluebird brood where only 2 of the 4 chicks survived (1 unhatched egg, 1 chick died shortly after hatching). But for some unknown reason (unknown to me), they left this box and that was it!!!! I don't have a clue as to what went on. There is some hope though...even after the blues left last year, I continued to put out some mealworms and eventually, Daddy Blue (from the 1st brood) brought the fledglings from their new nest to the mealworm feeder so I did get to see them. I think they only had this second brood because after those fledglings, that was it. Has anything changed from last year? Do you have House Sparrows or House Wrens that may have chased them away? You never know, they might be back. I hope for your sake. Maybe some other cavity nester will use that box. Good luck, Linda...

Judy, I'll have to check in to "red" mites to see if that's what I find after the second and third nestings (when the weather is hotter) but I do have what I call "feather mites" and I'm telling you there are hundreds in the box on the day the babies fledge. Even after I wash the box with soap and water and spray with 10% bleach there are still some crawling around. The mites don't totally disappear until the sun dries the clean nest box. Here in the South most of us do not have blowfly problems but every bluebirder I've talked to here has tons of mites. They make my skin crawl.

My 86 year old Aunt gave me a triple strand of Bluebird Pearls for Happiness (as it says on the box) last June 2006. She said that her late husband and my father (brothers) had given the pearls to their mother, who left them to my Aunt. I have looked at pictures of my grandmother wearing them and estimate that the pearls are from the 1940s. My uncle was a Navy pilot in the Pacific during WWII and Daddy was in Italy. I am wondering if these pearls were made available to soldiers during the war for gifts. They may not be of value, but they have much sentimental value for me. I wore them them for the first time this year on Christmas day. (excuse me if this is posted twice).