Sounds like time well spent. Now let's hope that House Wren stays away. You haven't gone off the edge, just dedicated and doing the best you can. We have to make sure they accept the changes we make. Most of them learn pretty quickly. They do teach one another. I love to share this story from my backyard: An older female (with us for years) took a young male, probably his first adult year, as her new mate after her mate was lost. The nest was complete with eggs, and they both knew how to use the mealworm feeder. Evidently, he was ready to feed the youngsters already and kept taking beakfuls of mealworms to the nestbox, and dropping them on the eggs! Well, each time he did that, she would follow him, retrieve the mealworms from among the eggs, and return to the feeder to feed HIM! It was priceless. Eventually, he got the idea, and fed her. Many of us have seen their courting behavior, when the male feeds the female as she begs like a fledgling, wings all fluttering. But this was a first for me! BlueBars

I think there is a French term for this - Moq? (Just kidding, I don't want the bluebird forum to turn in to an "adult" website). But seriously, the extra male could be an unpaired offspring from last year, helping out. It happens, but rarely. Usually the male will chase the youngsters away once nesting season begins. More often, young from the same year's brood might be seen helping out. But I have seen an adult female help raise another's brood. Maybe this happens more than we think, and we just don't see it as "another helper" thinking it is the same adult unless we see them both at the same time as you have. Without name tags or a guest list, we will never really know for sure. Bluebars

We have been blessed to have bluebirds nest in our bluebird house for several seasons now. When I noticed the male and female tending to the box this spring, I took a photo of the nest which showed 5 perfect bluebird eggs (4/29). Two - three days later we noticed that the pair was no longer tending to the nest. The male began to charge at his image in our windows all day every day. The female could be seen at the suet feeder from time to time but not at the bluebird house. A closer check of the house revealed a clump of pinestraw protruding from the entry and so I checked the nest. It appeared that the eggs had been stolen (by raccoons?) and only a small piece of shell was left. The birds were no longer tending to the nest and so I cleaned it out and the pole was greased with cayenne pepper to deter raccoons. Another few days went by and I noticed that the pair was tending to the box again. I waited a few more days and took a photo on 5/10 of the new nest which showed 4 white eggs in it. Ever since then the female bluebird has been diligent in tending the nest, but the male rarely goes to it. I checked the box again today 6/7 and the eggs have not yet hatched. It seems that the hatching is overdue. Are these indeed bluebird eggs? I will avoid removing anything from the nest but I'm just curious about might be going on here. Any advice? The photo from 5/10 is attached.

It could be just about anything. I was woken up by voices in the middle of the night, once. It took me forever to figure out where they were coming from, but it turned out to be my computer speakers picking up someone's HAM radio conversation. I had to unplug them to make it stop. I plugged them back in the next morning, and it has never happened again. Oh, just thought of another one! I have a Curious George doll for the Grandbabies. He giggles when you squeeze his feet/hands. He sits in a basket under an end table, nice and quiet until the kids are visiting. I switched the wooden table out to one that is glass, and George started giggling on his own at random times, but I couldn't figure out what was causing it. Turns out the igniters on my gas cooktop were doing it. Apparently he was shielded under the wooden table, but not the glass.