Thank you morz8, Hi Les! I'm so glad you came to our forum--always nice people here ;-) For some folks, winter isn't brutal; it's not freezing and icy, snow is rare and it melts the close to the moment it hits the ground. Zone 8 and 9 are more mild during winter, Zone 10 is sub-tropical(?). However, you do still have a seasonal change--in winter it's cooler than autumn, the sky get dark early in the evening, and when the sun sets the air is colder than when it shines. I will start sowing my cold-season leafy greens and root veggies anytime after Christmas--they'll sprout near the ends of winter season and I can immediately transplant their seedlings into the garden. By mid February I've sown my tomatoes, eggplants and peppers, and then I also direct sow the peas. I can do them in a container too, but they take cold wet soil so I seed them right under their trellis. I do have pole beans which reseed here each year, but if I want any other beans I wait to sow around Mother's Day. I have not been able to get artichoke to flower here. Yet. But I am in zone seven, you are in a warmer climate.

My female is sooo focused! First nesting fledged (6) on Thursday May 10th, I got the nestbox cleaned out asap because I know this female is very quick to start the second nesting (she is the same female we had the last two years). She started the second nest on Friday and laid the first egg this morning! I couldn't believe only four days inbetween fledging and laying another egg! Dad is still busy feeding the fledglings which are in our woods, haven't seen any of them yet, hopefully by this coming weekend I will get some glimpses of them and maybe tell how many made it. Two were non flyers so I am not sure about those two, especially with the mom focused on the second nesting and not on her fledglings. Donna

Congrats, and break out the candy cigars! Sometimes they remove unhatched eggs, sometimes not. I like to wait at least 3 extra days to see if it will hatch, but after that, a nestling would be so far behind the others, it would not likely be able to compete and would not survive anyway. You don't have to remove unhatched eggs, but usually I do. They are SO fragile, though, it must be done very carefully. You don't want to crush it and soil the nest, which would surely attract ants and other problems. You can use a spoon; I have a nice plastic one that came with MiracleGro that has 2 ends, one end is very deep and holds the egg nicely so it won't roll out. BlueBars

Very odd things happening with my houses this year. I had bluebirds in one house that laid 5 eggs. For the most part I try to stay away so they don't get spooked. In this case the next time I checked there was one fledgling that I saw but he didn't seem ready to fly away yet. But when I checked 2 days later there were no babies or eggs. The nest was empty. This box was protected with the mesh on the opening. I'm hoping time just flew by and the brood hatched and fledged in my absence! Will the parents start a new brood in the same nest or should I clean the box out for them to start over? I had another box that had activity, 5 eggs layed and a week later no eggs or babies. I fear they were killed since it was an old house from last year and it did not have the protective metal mesh at the opening. I have a nest nearby with the mesh protection. I kept checking and there was no activity or eggs. Then suddenly there was one egg!! I assumed the mom would lay more. I checked for 2 days, still only one egg. The third day the egg hatched with a tiny bald with a little fuzz baby bird. I kept watching from a distance and I did not see the male or female going into the house. I skipped looking inside the box today. I wanted to stay totally away. Tomorrow I will check again. I hope the little guy is okay.... Is it unusual for a female to lay only one egg? I'm thinking that perhaps the pair that were in the other box moved to this box when a predator got their other eggs..... Thus only one last egg to lay??? The box with the one egg is about 20 feet from the empty box. Perhaps this is part of that brood? Can the mom or dad move an egg or did she just lay it in a different box?? I have another box about 100 feet from that one protected with the mesh that some sparrows have taken over. They have built a nest and hang out in front of it on the mesh opening and on top of it but no eggs for well over a month. Perhaps they are the culprits that got the 5 bluebird eggs. Very strange that they built a nest and aren't using it. I know they will build several, one as a decoy or to give the female a choice, but I don't see that they've done that unless they are planning to take over the bluebird box. I will be keeping a watch on that....