Cait,you'll have to get someone you know near a Winn Dixie to buy you a set there,lol! You can get a dinner plater,cup,and saucer for 3.99,and you can also get it in Castle Pink for the same price. Even if they break in transit,it won't be a bad thing! I send my son-in-law boxes for 8.10(no matter how much the box weighs),so it might not be a bad price for some mosaic pieces. I use the clear spray sealer from Wal Mart,I made some birdhouses last year for outside use,and they're all doing good. I put several coats on them. The perch does look like a glass knob,but it's a large acrylic prism bead,I got maybe 20 in a box at Michaels for 4.99,different shapes in the box. You can use the 40% off coupon and get it even cheaper. They're pretty,lots of uses for them. Ummmmm,it's also the same kind of bead my poor water faucet 'threw up' lol :) Thanks for the inspiration everybody.

We've had a blue jay pair in our rhododendron. I've been watching since it's also about 6 feet from our front door, up against our house. I got mama a birdbath and food, which she never used. So her eggs hatched and I watched daddy feed her, and then her feed her babies. This was so precious. But now they're all gone. Could they be renesting? I've had my field cam on them but it's not revealing if daddy or mommy transported the babies. I havent seen any critters either. I was really hoping I would get to see the babies grow. I feel bad bc I am not sure if her babies made it. 😔

My first egg also vanished. Apparently sparrows tend to simply smash eggs, but in my case, it was a wren that got them. The consensus is that the wren ejected the first egg and another bird or predator ate it or carried it off. The remaining two I found on the ground a week later, punctured (definitely a wren). So either a wren got the eggs and your sparrows moved in, or the sparrows carried the eggs off. Probably the former. As far as the nests go, here's a link that talks about different nests: http://www.sialis.org/competition.htm In a nutshell, a bluebird nest will be of fine grasses/pine needles, a chickadee is mossy, a tree swallow will have a lining of feathers, a wren is thick sticks up to the top, and a HOSP is also very high grasses/twigs (not as thick) but trashy. Sometimes nuthatches and titmice also nest in bluebird boxes.

Hey, I've got a Bluebird pair nesting in my backyard this year, and they aren't following the "rules" either. One - My back yard could be described at best as an "open woodland" with numerous large canopy trees, plenty of evergreens, shrubbery, and tangled thickets, intermixed with some lawn, gardens, and a couple overgrown meadow/weedy areas. A very mixed habitat. While numerous Bluebirds visit daily during the winter to eat the home-made peanut butter suet, they usually disperse by Spring and I never in a million years expected any to nest here. On the plus side, the next door neighbor has a large lawn he mows and there is a meadow across the street, so they probably hunt there, but I often observe them perching and hunting in my yard too. Two - Even though I rushed to put up a traditional Bluebird nestbox mounted on a pole w/baffle, the Bluebirds have chosen to nest in NATURAL CAVITIES in the dead pine snags in my back yard. They have had 2 broods and chose 2 different natural cavities for each brood, while ignoring the nest box. One cavity was about 20 feet up, one about 10 feet up. Guess they didn't read about safety rules, proper hole size, and predator guards. :) I am very excited because their 2nd brood fledged about a week ago, they disappeared for awhile, and today Mr. and Mrs. Blue showed up to repeatedly retrieve some suet nuggets and fly off to the large Pin Oak in the front yard where I'm guessing the fledglings were hanging out! (Also heard some cries coming from the tree.) Momma Blue peeking out from her first nesting cavity -