Yes we do!!! 1 baby SCARED me. It was about to leave the nest and changed his mind. He couldn't get back in the box and not enough room to fly, so he fell to the ground. I went out there to pick him up and mom dive bombed and snapped at me like crazy. Just as I was about to pick it up it flew....so I was really relieved. I will check the box tomorrow to see if there is an egg left in there or I missed the 6th baby leaving. Karen

Hi Keith Yes, 1/4000 is usually fast enough to stop the wings, depending on how close you are to your subject. When you try to stop a hummingbird in flight you may need more speed, again depending on how close you are to him. When I shoot hummers I usually ask the camera for a little more speed, just in case. All of the pictures up to now have been of the first fledgling. Here are three more shots. The first is of the second fledgling of the three, and the last two shots are of the third fledgling. I have cropped them 100 percent. If you look closely, you can see the nest dust flying off them. Also you may notice that the first shot was taken at 1/5000 sec. I shoot in aperture priority. On Tuesday I set the ISO at 1000 and the lens wide open (f/2.8). The camera decided the appropriate shutter speed. Maybe there was a change in the available light. All my cameras are capable of 1/8000. I often dream of cameras and lenses too. :-) Dave

Congrats! It's sad though, no more Baby Blues untill next year :.( I only get 2 nestings a year also so I only have 8 to 10 more days of having Baby Blues myself. :(

"continually added fresh water through the fill tube in an attempt to dilute the hydrated lime solution (the soil is covered by a plastic cover, which is part of the Earthbox system)." OK, I get it. Since I'm a DIYer who reads but still won't follow directions (and have no patience for being on tour buses and the like LOL), removing the cover is something I wouldn't think twice about to get rid of the excess. But a single top flood if we could turn back the clock would have addressed the problem much more effectively. More importantly, I think it may also hold a clue for you to re-enforce your original thoughts on what happened when you didn't quickly refill with the balance of water. You'd wick up the let's say 2x concentrated solution, which you already worried about ... but if the top had somewhat dried, you'd also wick up more total volume ... we are not dealing with a gas tank, but rather a sponge. Now you are slowly removing it since there will be a concentration gradient through the small wicks and what is above stays (and this might be the situation that tigrikt was thinking and helping you with too). "I usually use a bagged planting mix from the local nursery (their own "custom mix"), which contains a variety of ingredients (peat, redwood, bat guano, etc.)." tigrikt could comment better than I on this one if they are an actual EB user in your sort of climate. I'm inclined to think you have bad advice from the nursery on the soil, if there is nothing in there to cut back on the sponginess of the peat - like perlite. Redwood? perhaps you mean redwood bark? Big difference there. I'm not up on shredded redwood wood, but I do recall Dr. Gericke had some issues with it, as being somewhat acidic at least, though as a composted ingredient it would probably be good. Either way these things seem to add up to high acid (hurts calcium uptake) and high water retention - outside the sweet spot. I am assuming a lot of things online so it is more of the concern I'd check on, and recommend you learn more about the properties of soils. I understand you've grown this way for years, with reasonable results, so I'm just suggesting you go to the next level now and experiment a little with your soil mix's water retention with something as simple as some added perlite in a few Boxes if you want to take it slowly. Sey has been experimenting with a mix in containers promoted by tapla, and probably could add a few thoughts on the soil if he's still following the thread. Cheers PC edit: maybe the cover is not removable, and I assume it is. If that's the case, I'm sure a DIYer could experiment with removable covers, which I guess is going against the EB concept of set it and forget it, so it will depend on the complexity you feel is appropriate for your situation. One difference between my containers and yours is that I use a lighter mix uncovered and depend on the rain to naturally flush with pure rainwater (free distilled water). It helps keep accumulation or any errors with fertilizer supplements in check, but I enjoy supplementing with fertilizers so that is part of my growing strategy.