The surface of the pot. I put it into a 14" plastic shallow pot from HD, 50 plus 1/2" holes were drilled into the sides and bottom for drainage. There is at least 5 years worth of 'growing space' available for this plant, I have no intention of doing anything to it for quite some time. Same 2 rules were broken. One: pot is too large. Two: wrong growing medium for Pleuro. This was done on purpose, time will tell if it's successful as it was with the excelsa. Nick

I guess the story is not over...as I said, little TUTI left at 1:55pm. At about 4:10pm, I heard a rustle in the birdless box (I left the nest there for now). The HOWR FRANTICALLY started to de-construct the nest. Grabbing nest material--fur, straw, grass, leaves--out of the hole! It was in a frenzy!!! It would grab something and almost throw itself at the hole to get the material out! If it went to grab a chunk of fur too big to take out, it pulled and pulled at it till it broke it down to a size that would go out the hole. Fast and furious. I did catch this frenzy on tape so I'll be putting that online in the next few days. I closed off the box for today. I need some rest. I can't imagine how such a little bird can do what I saw it do: peck eggs and throw them out, peck chicks and throw them out, attack almost-fledged chicks, and de-construct a HUGE TUTI nest! Blessings, Linda...

Matt, I can't tell you how surprised I am to hear that about the inoculation (in bluebirds) not being necessary. I've been told by two songbird rehabbers that it has to be done. A friend of mine was rehabbing in Florida a few years ago and someone brought her a female bluebird who had been attacked by a cat. She noticed a patch on the female and asked the people to go back to the nest box and look for eggs. Sure enough, there were two eggs and they brought them to my friend. I saw video of that poor momma blue sitting on those eggs up until the time she died of her injuries. My friend had an incubator and decided she would try incubating the eggs to see if they would hatch. They did! They lived about 12 hours. She spoke to several different rehabbers around the county (including the one in my area) during that 12 hour period and was told that there was no way she could save the babies because their gut had not been inoculated by a female bluebird. This woman had cared for several newly hatched baby bird that did survive, these two bluebirds being the only exception. I don't mean to infer that she didn't loose some of the birds she rehabbed (mostly due to injuries) but these were the only two newly hatched babies that she lost. As far as licensed rehabbing, my hat is off to anyone who does it. It is expensive beyond belief and totally time consuming, especially during nesting season. My rehabber is taking 3 to 5 years off to get a business started but she still attends classes and conventions and keeps her license current. She told me that when she was rehabbing full time that she couldn't even think of taking a vacation or long weekend from early March till the end of August. My friend in Florida quit after about a year and a half because she was emotionally drained and BROKE! Karen, I don't have TRES here but thought I'd read that a flock will pick up a stray and teach it how to survive.

In my research on birds nesting in natural cavities, I have never had a White-headed Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, or Western Bluebird nest disturbed or taken over by a House Wren. In fact, House wrens often nest in a cavity in the same snag as a nesting flicker or bluebird. I have even had a flicker, Mountain Bluebird, and House Wren all nesting in different cavities in the same snag! And yes, all were successful. And my sample sizes are robust, 150 western bluebird nests, 131 Northern Flicker nests, 62 White-headed Woodpeckers, and 78 Hairy Woodpeckers over seven years of my study. I hypothesize that the House Wrens behavior is an artifact of artifical nest boxes or at least exacerbated by the density of suitable nest sites (boxes) compared to natural cavities. Granted, mine is only one study area, but it is amazing that I don't see HOWR disturbing other cavity nesting birds. In natural cavities, they don't appear to fill every available cavity with twigs to attract a mate as they do with nest boxes. House Wrens apparently are doing what they are genetically programmed to do. By usurping other birds from nest boxes, they build many nests of which the female apparently chooses the best, then dismantles it and builds it herself. It is called limitiing competition (the same could be said for egg piercing). Most research done on on HOWR has found that most egg piercing and other behaviors stop immediately after the HOWR has a complete clutch and begin incubation. Some species such as chickadees cover their eggs which has been shown to deter egg piercing by HOWR. If people are going to provide boxes for birds to nest in, which is a very good conservation tool since natural cavities in some areas can be in short supply, they should take the House Wrens and their (to our eyes) not so wondeful behavior with that. House Wrens are native cavity nesters too...even it we don't necessarily like how they behave. We shouldn't play favorites, but should help to conserve all cavity nesting species. The same can be said for Brown-headed Cowbirds. Cowbirds are native birds that have evolved to lay their eggs in other birds nests. This species was abundant in the great plains where they followed herds of bison. Because of this behavior, they didn't have time to nest before the herds moved on..hence, easier to lay your eggs in the nest of another bird to raise. We enabled the cowbird to move into and impact forest species that did not coevolve with the cowbird, through deforestation, farming, and raising of cattle. Just remember, cowbirds wouldn't be in half the places they are today if it wasn't for humans. I kind of agree, an early warning system for HOWR seems a bit silly. BN