Rubbery makes me think of reptiles, rather than birds, so I'm wondering if you have turtles or tortoises in your yard? Though to be honest, most turtles dig a deeper hole than that. If you are sure they aren't some kind of fungi, my best guess is turtle. I'd watch them very closely...it will be fun to see what actually comes out. Keep us posted. Marcia

Always wait it out when in doubt. Checking your other post you say you have 2 other boxes. If this is a new female, she will most likely start a nest in the other boxes or on top of the existing nest. Only if she begins a new nest on top of the current nest would I remove it. If you see no changes after 2 weeks, it would be ok to remove in my opinion. Just wait it out and let nature take its course. Do you have any other birds interested in the boxes?

If you can do it without hurting the nestlings you may remove it at this point. The mother may remove it as well.

Thanks Shaxhome. Very good question. There are very important benefits for the sous vide method. 1. Less meat shrinkage, may be 5% less. This adds up to a lot of money. 2. Cheaper cuts of meat. I recently did London broil ($2.49 a lb) medium rare, and tender like expensive steaks. This will save a lot of money also. 3. Precise quality of meat done-ness. Rare, medium rare, medium ----- it is all up to you to set the temperature, nothing can go wrong. No-overcooking or under-cooking. Fool-proof. 4. Makes no difference how big the meat is, from one thin breast meat to a whole turkey. Set it and forget it. 5. Makes no different starting temperature, from frozen to room temperature. No need to poke around with a probe thermometer. 6. Re-heating without over cooking. 7. No need to "rest" the meat. In this case, the steaks were frozen, I put them in the sous vide cooker with a little seasoning, set the temperature at 129 F for one and 133 F for the other. A few hours later, 5 minutes before meal time, fire up the cast iron grill to red hot and grilled the steaks 1 1/2 minutes each side to sear. Perfect steaks. Perfect hot steaks. Guaranteed every time. dcarch