congrats! Those babies are a few days old already. There is a spot in the www.sialis.org site that has pictures of "egg to fledge" or something like that. My guess is about 3 days but you have a beter view. Anyway, you want to mark your calendar so you do not open the box after day 13. Good Luck!

Lisa, I thought that I read on this forum that some birds are more sensitive to disturbances than others. All I know about nest-box monitoring I learn from this forum. I respect and appreciate the efforts (and results!) of bluebird landlords, who reestablished EABBs in the eastern US. I do question, personally, the monitoring of other songbirds whose populations are not in trouble; my concern, also, is that some people, way less knowledgeable than the pros here, will think that they can and should monitor all nests, including cup nests. On the BWF, someone took a picture of almost fledged 'dees. I worry about flushing out chicks that age. Not that anyone knowledgeable on this forum would do it, but you all know your stuff. Many people glean information from forums instead of researching, and cannot keep their hands out of nests. Not that I am "scolding" anyone; it's just what I think of, as a visitor, when I come here. Not everyone knows there stuff. But I guess we can't help that. My instincts and background urge me to leave nests alone (except EABBs), because unknowingly, we create more trouble than help with birds that are doing well already, and need the experience of nesting failures to get them right in other tries. Although Janie's save is impossible to argue with!! But Janie, your gut (sorry for the metaphor) is greater than most other's : ) Which nest boxes then are you supposed to not check? Which species was I thinking of? Thanks!

In general: I have had open and closed burner gas tops and closed are 100% easier to clean, I would never never get open unless I had daily cleaning help. The BTU rating on the highest burner is important, as well as a very small BTU simmer burner. I also need continuous grate to slide a pot over, and prefer mechanical knobs to electronic keypads. There are some cooktops where the grates are too high off the burners and there are complaints of a feeling of under-powered burners despite the BTU rating. I think this whole open burner for the home thing is nothing short of ridiculous, it is more of a high volume restaurant issue, but his is gardenweb... I do not like the performance of gas ovens. I like electric and I love the functionality of convection. I would never buy an oven without convection. So I would vote for closed burner gas cooking and electric ovens.

Gorgeous reds!!!! I have very few. I got rid of Mr. Lincoln and Oklahoma for being stingy. I have Velvet Fragrance and Alec's Red. I want them to grow taller, but so far they're staying short. Velvet Fragrance has an incredible fragrance!!! Nummykitchen - those roses are beyond beautiful!!! Wow!!! Such great pictures too!! Dan - love the color on your Olympiad!! Fragrancenutter - Striped Intuition must be fabulous for you to keep a scentless rose. I don't want to get it because of the lack of fragrance. But.... Sara-Ann - looks lovely and ruffled. :) Alec's Red - a shortie for me.