Kwanzan Cherry Trees, Crape Myrtles, Dogwood, or Yoshino? ===>> the first and the last are two types of the same.. if not the same ... flowering cherry in my z5 MI ... no such thing as a CM ... dogwoods are variable depending on native or foo foo .. and wind.. especially in winter ... no cacti grow in my z5 .. except maybe the prickly pear ... if that is a true cacti the cherry type trees of washington DC ... sometimes they bloom.. sometimes they dont.. depending on my z5 frost freeze after bud set ... micro climate rules on those ... as well as them dying outright in a bad z5 winter .... so it all matters which z5 ... many peeps in no drain clay .. plant only half to the root mass in the clay.. and berm above and around .. allowing the tree to live long enough with drainage .. to put its roots where it can cope with the native soil ... the deal with z5.. is that MI z5.. is much different than say kansas city z5 ... zone is simply put ... min winter temps ... one day .... one minute in time in the dead of winter ... to exaggerate for impact ... summer in z5 can be the opposite issue.. as to what can cope year round.. though perhaps this issue is not as great when outside the world of conifers ... further south z5 has severe summer humidity problems ... give us a major city ... NEVER amend a planting hole ... unless you really know what you are doing ... the problem with really bad clay.. is that you basically dig a cauldron ... which water will never drain out of .... and there arent many trees that like to live in a tub of water.. roots need air.. as much as they need moisture ... so the half in.. half out idea.. allows the tree to put its roots where it can cope... and if you accept the cauldron idea.. you should understand.. that adding anything into the cauldron.. is NOT going to make water drain any faster.. and many things thrown in holes.. actually RETAIN more water.. like anything peat based ... to suggest your general area is completely devoid of trees ... and no tree can ever live in your clay ... is probably not reality ... trees can definitely grow and cope with any clay ... and your 40 year old concolor is a prime example.. the real issue is the fact that you are moving and planting a tree.. and can it 'cope'.. due to the transplant.. until it can take care of itself.. which is a short way of saying.. its the human touch that will kill them ... i still maintain.. there are very few trees that can not deal with it ... otherwise zone appropriate ... if they are properly planted .. and cared for ... anyway.. if you cant tell.. i am stills struggling to stay awake.. to go pick her up form the dance in a 30 minutes ... i figured what you meant on the fruiting .. just trying to clarify your ideas into concepts that can be discussed ... just trying to focus you on the thought process .. without suggesting that everyone elses replys are 'blatent misinformation'... anyway.. did the variegation do anything for mom .. or is that too far outside the box.. lol ... its more of a walk out there and enjoy it often.. rather than gaze at it from the window type thing.. depending on distance from house ... redbud might be a very early pink ... seedlings probably wont be an issue in grass ... and my 25 year old one that came with the house.. didnt go much beyond 25 feet ... i cant recall any special fall color on the heart shaped leaves ... see link .. oh yeah.. add 'in fall' to the search .. and its a lemon yellow ... though there is a red one there called 'Charlotte Eastern Redbud'.. and i know nothing about that one ... 4th pic ken ps: i suspect we are reading much more into your description of your soil.. than you mean to imply ... have you ever done a perk test.. dig a hole .. fill with water.. and find out how fast it drains ... and frankly .. if it drains at all.. you do NOT have 'bad' clay ... i bet december is not the best to to try this.. as in my z5.. the soil has been frozen for 10 days already ... Here is a link that might be useful: blooms before it leafs out.. sometimes in a light spring snow .. in my z5

Hi Kathleen- I'll address you since the other posts are old. I am so very sorry that you have experienced this. Did you read what the responses were to the older post of one that lost a bluebird on the nest? I would just repeat everything that they said. If absolutely no sign of injury, I would suspect lawn pesticides, but considering what happened to the 1st person that posted & didn't see signs of injury on her bluebird, it did turn out to be house sparrows. I would highly suspect this. Do you think the female is dead too? If so, again I would be suspicious of HOSP. Answering your question, the male would not starve himself, nor is he able to brood eggs. If the female died too, the eggs wouldn't have hatched because the female is the one to incubate the eggs. She has a brooding patch on her lower abdomen that the male doesn't have. If she is alive, she may not be returning to nest because of the failed nest situation, especially if there was foul play. Make sure you know that she is not returning before removing the nest & eggs. If she is alive, she will probably try to find a new mate. Without repeating too much, make sure your birdhouse is on a pole with a baffle & put a sparrow spooker up after the 1st egg. If you know for sure that the nest has been abandoned & you don't get any activity, you may want to change the location of the box (birdhouse). If you immediately get a house sparrow setting up shop, then you'll know that was most likely the culprit. Again, if female is not returning, now would be the time to get a Van Ert trap for your house to trap the male & female HOSP. If you do, make sure you are monitoring every hour if possible so you don't trap a native bird. They can die in there if without food for too long. One of the previous posts left a website for the Van Ert trap. Again, the previous posts left great advice for your situation. This site is not as active as it used to be for bluebirders, so you may want to post to bluebirdnut.com. Lots of bluebird experts are on that site like this one used to have. That's where I go whenever I need advice. BTW, I lived in Atlanta for ten years (live in AL now). Very sorry to hear about your bluebird tragedy. Hope you'll have another pair come for a future nesting, but definitely get that sparrow spooker!

we just had the same thing happen. The nest is high-on a rafter under our porch roof. Parents have been feeding like crazy and they were getting big, but after a weekend out of town I looked up yesterday to see if they had fledged while we were gone and saw the tops of their heads so thought it would be a few more days. But today the heads hadn't moved and now there is no movement in the nest and the parents have disappeared. There seems to be no disturbance of the nest and it isn't near any kind of toxic exhaust. The nest, which was a holdover from prior years, was crawling with mites and I put some DE in and around it when the eggs were in it; I'm afraid I may have caused a chain reaction of some kind? I'm bewildered. Any thoughts?

BB Lover - I checked my BB notes for this date in 2017 - and apparently the one bird was not dead, as my notes said all fledged. You will know if one is dead when you check the box, as there will be a bad odor, especially when it is hot weather. I believe you would then have to remove it but then it would depend on how many days old they were as parents could remove a smaller bird easily but you don't want to make others fledge early . A dead bird in a box with healthy other birds will draw ants and other predators which would not be good. We need to use common sense and not "over protect" them, but we really do have a responsibility to help when we invite them into our yard with a nestbox!