Ivy, I think the only thing sadder than taking down the nesting area now would have been to have had to take it down after the eggs were laid. It must be awful when you have to take down "occupied" nests! There used to be a lot of bald eagles here when I moved up to this end of town about 15 years ago. It was on the very edge of the developed area and there were big old cottonwood trees along the roads overlooking huge fields of prairie dogs. One morning on the way to work I counted a dozen of them. It was way cool! Now all the old trees are gone and everything is built up and the eagles are gone! At least the Rocky Mountain Arsenalnow wildlife preserveis close enough that they had somewhere to go. Sure wish there were still a few around here to watch! Now I have to watch the bird cams if I want to see eagles! I was planning to put something on top of the box to keep them away, Bean, but I was so tired when I razed the condo yesterday that I almost dropped the bricks on top of my head when I took down the roof! Today I crisscrossed some of the shims I had used for leveling the roof on top of the box, and Im pretty sure theyre off to other digs. When I took the old nest down I was wondering if the robins might be into recycling, so I put it down in the perennials near the condo site, and today I noticed that the one side of it has disappeared, so I think they are using some of the old building materials in the new nest! Itll be interesting to see if more of the old nest disappears in the next few days. I didnt see them around too much today, but then I was out in the backyard all afternoon. At least they werent hanging out staring at me anymore!!! If your tree is no taller then me, Digit, Im not sure it even qualifies as a tree! Im 5'3"! Yeah, I know how tough they areand it looks like theyre up, up, and away already. And, oh, yeah! Theyll be back for the worms! Sometimes it gets very frustrating when Im "fixing" the bark mulch over and over and over where the robins have been digging for wormsbut theyre always forgiven! Its fun to have robins around. Im amazed how close theyll get to me when Im out working in the yard. I think were familywhich didnt help when I had to evict them! Ever since I moved in here the house sparrows have been building a nest in the Euonymous thats growing up the side of the house at the end of my deck, but it made such a mess in the flower bed below it that this past fall I pulled the nest and most of the Euonymous down (and out from under the siding!) I can live without the house sparrows! At the last house a pair of hairy woodpeckers built a nest in one of the dying limbs in the cottonwood in my backyard! It was fun to watch them the year they nested in it. Before they could come back the next year, the limb fell off of the tree! When it was cut up I saved the section of the limb where they built the nest. I keep thinking maybe some day Ill mount it on a post or something and Ill see if anybody else would like to live in it! It sure is amazing what woodpeckers can do with just their beaks! Maybe you need to hire some woodpeckers to build some nests for you, David! ;-) Skybird

This past weekend my son and his wife came down. As I was showing them around in the garden and orchard, we got fussed at by the killdeer pair. We must have gotten near their nest. One was close to us yelling, and the other one was over a bit doing the wing thing. We had just seen the one who was fussing and as I was explaining to them about the wing thing, my son said look, and the other one was doing the wing thing. It was very interesting to say the least, and impressed my son and his wife!

No, they aren't too large. 7.5 inches is what I am finding. They are parasitic brooders and lay their eggs inside the nests of other birds. That can cause some issues for the host species brood as the Cowbird chick often hatches first and therefore gets more food. They are federally protected birds though.~~A

Thanks everybody. It was snowing quite hard, but no wind, so it was manageable. The sun is shining today and it has started to melt a little bit, but still very cold, so it will take a while. I think the green does set the birdhouse plates off better, but it sure does cover up most of the plaid. I wish there was just a bit more plaid peeking out. Oh well, time to change it to Valentine's anyway, LOL I did think of Karen when I bought those cardinal tealights. I knew she would like them. I won't light them as it will destroy them. Does anybody else buy candles that they won't light? Or am I the only weirdo, LOL?? TTFN, Candy