I'm in Acworth (NW Georgia). Had a clutch of 5 eggs. 3 hatched on Sunday but one of them didn't make it. Had 2 unhatched eggs...it had been 4 days from when the others hatched so I took them out and there were dead embryos. I suspect a combination of our crazy weather and at least in one case, Mama wasn't rotating the eggs enough. Good luck! Last year I didn't have an early brood but had 3 broods later. Linda...

I am sooooooooooo sorry, I will finish the story for you. Got to tell you what we found that night, what was so 'surprising': [This is after we watched the fledgling video several times and saw a shadow across the outdoor camera lens...] We decided that we had better go outside and check the yard to make sure there were no fledglings on the ground before we let our 4 dogs out for the night. Two of our dogs have birding instincts. By this time, it was pitch black (after 9pm). And thanks to our list's researchers, we know there was no moonlight. We each took a flashlight and went out the back door, Dave went one way, I went the other. I headed toward nest box and as I was walking past it, my light caught something out of the corner of my eye that didn't fit ...I saw something on the TOP of the outdoor camera. I YELLED to Dave "It's a snake!!!!!!!!!!!!!". As he was coming to me, he told me to get a reacher [a device used to help folks pick up things beyond their reach], which I gladly did so I could get away from the snake. I grabbed a digital camera but I was too shaky to set it to flash so I don't have a picture from then. This snake was coiled up on top of the outdoor camera!! Coiled twice or three times, it looked HUGE! What first ran through my mind was that the camera might be warm, especially since it'd been on all day. Is the warmth what attracted him? Don't snakes work that way? I've seen Dave try to get a snake we saw in the spring with the reacher and he wasn't successful. Where am I at this time, you ask? Halfway across the yard of course! As Dave extends the reacher toward the snake, it extends its head and body in the other direction as it tried to span the distance between the top of the camera to the underside of one of the patio umbrellas. Just like in the jungle movies. Eeeekkkkk! Reacher-with-snake in one hand, flashlight in his mouth, Dave's moving toward me to grab a plastic bucket that has straight sides and a lid but the lid had a hole in it. I'm screaming "He's going to get out of there, there's a damn hole in the lid!" and my 'Snake Rangler' said "He can't climb up the sides!". I finally edge slowly toward the bucket. As I peeked into the it, flashlight on the snake, I started yelling again "It's got diamonds, diamonds...look at the head...it's triangular...it's a rattler." We have rattlers in these parts. I've not seen any, thank goodness, but some of the male neighbors enjoyed regaling me with stories of them when we first moved here. That and little scorpions which unfortunately I've seen in our basement. I digress. Dave took the snake bucket to the yard past the gate so the dogs wouldn't get at it. He put a flat stone on top of the hole. It took me some time to get to sleep. Of course, I was seeing the snake reaaaccchiiinnnggggg out to me. But I was mostly wondering if the snake was attracted to the warmth of the camera. I didn't say I was thinking logically that night. I was concerned that if the snake was attracted to the heat of the outdoor camera which is the same as the IN BOX camera, are nest boxes with those cameras putting our chicks in danger??? === That's where my head was that night. Keith Kridler, expert and nice guy, identified the snake as a rat snake. They can crawl up ANYTHING, they have good eyesight and probably was watching the nest box for days, and can detect vibration. You know what it's like when a box of 5 15 day old chicks start to flapping their wings and all that kind of activity. Amazing, huh???? Linda...

They don't necessarily require your investment in mealworms alone. They are quite happy with hulled,crushed sunflower seed and will arrive as a family to feed without squabbling at the feeder. Place a collector tray under the feeder to catch the falling stuff as the bluebirds aren't meticulous and will drop as much or more than they consume. Bluebird habitat also attracts the less stout phoebe pairs which are more aerobatic catching bugs/moths in flight. However they compete for nesting spots so by mid spring the bluebirds have nested elsewhere and return in late summer if they get supplemental feeding. Least that's how it works on my acreage. The feeder I fill with crushed sunflower seed is the one with the squirrel repelling feature of a perch that quickly rotates when the weight of a squirrel or other ground critter activates it. It holds a family of 4 bluebirds, a fat cardinal and a couple of goldfinches without activating the 'repellent' feature. Hulled whole or crushed sunflower seed tends to hatch out insect worms in storage...more protein for the birds so don't toss out the seed thinking that it is spoiled unless it smells rancid. Toss it under a shrub or tree, something will eat it.

I don't feed them, Marti, but I do have houses for them (which I did not get cleaned out this year). They eat the berries off my hackberry and that is the only time I get to see them up close. They are very shy at my house and I am usually seeing them only from a distance.