The design of cold cases is an ongoing distraction for me. The first one I ever heard of was in a very, very old issue of Scientific American magazine when they had a column called "The Amateur Scientist" edited by C.L.Stong. A geranium hobbyist needed an enclosed case that would deal with the heat of dozens of 40W tubes and incandescent lamps which back then was the only way of obtaining high light intensities. His case was a two level affair with a 5,000BTU window air conditioner controlled by an external thermostat in the upper chamber. I extrapolated that by using modern A/C equipment lower temps could be obtained. A/C dehumidifies as it cools so some way of restoring moisture is essential. A misting system or fogger I think would be more effective in a small case than an evaporative cooler in much the way a hot mist humidifier or steam vaporizer is more effective in a large room than a cool vapor or cool mist humidifier. Large aquariums can be found used on craigslist and reject aquariums from pet stores. Go as large as you can. H

Neopyte, I had my dh make my hole reducers, he has a drill press?? at work and used cedar. However I know you can purchase them also, hopefully someone else here will chime in with the where on that one. I had chickadees building last year but was a day late on the hole reducer, the HOPS ran them off. The box they had chosen wasn't one I could put a van ert in and I didn't, at the time, have a spare nestbox to use as a trapbox. Luckily the dees didn't get harmed but I was sad to see them not nest there, coincindentally the Blues ended up nesting in that same box, by that time the HOSP had either been eliminated or left the yard. They usually say to not put the reducer on until the chickadee lays the first egg as they don't care for the 1/8 hole as much but can get into it fine. If you have HOSP around though, I would do it before and hope for the best. Better to be safe than sorry. As far as seed the chickadees love sunflower seeds, hearts and chip or BOSS, the also like peanuts and suet around here. Also it isn't a good idea to put a nestbox near the birdfeeders, too much bird traffic that way. The closest nestbox I have to a feeder is about 50ft, the rest are much further away than that. It is best to point the hole of the nestbox away from prevailing winds, preferabbly towards a tree but away from the way the direction the rain usually blows during the summer months. Donna

Cathy (and all), Thanks. The boxes are out in the open for the most part. This is my first time for tree sparrows and chickadees alike. Here is my update: I believe I had two successful nestings. I watched the chickadee take small green catepillars to her (or his) nestlings several times. She let me get pretty close---I happened to be standing pretty close and that is when I notice her in a blueberry bush. Several times I saw the tree sparrows flying in and out of their box. I was not sure when they laid eggs or how old the nestlings were, so, I never actually opened the box after first observing the nests (chickadee and tree sparrow in seperate boxes, of course. :)) I was out of town for a few days so I didn't get to see any of them fledge. I did, however, open the boxes after a reasonable amount of time to be sure they were not still inside. Both boxes were empty which was a relief to me. I was a bit concerned about the chicadee's nestbox because it was in more sun than I realized and we had a few days in the 90s. I cleaned out the chicadee nest---very easy with a stick. Not very messy. I dumped the mostly moss nest onto a bare spot and pressed the moss into the ground. It was green and seems to be taking over now. The tree sparrow nest was much messier and I cleaned it out, wiped it down with bleach solution and rinsed it well. Now for the best part: I moved the chickadee's box to a more shaded location and shortly after have a wren of some kind---possibly house wren.--It is a native bird and has caused no problems yet. At first I thought it was just filling the box with sticks to keep other birds out, but it does seem to be nesting there. It has left the other box empty. So, after a week or so of monitoring the second box and always finding it empty, I was suprised to see a full nest in it today. No eggs yet. I had to share the news and asked my partner to come out to see the nest. Right before we starting the trek out to the box, we saw a bird fly in its direction. With the backlighting, I couldn't tell waht it was. He said he saw it fly from the lawn to the box. He was certain it was a bluebird. We walked out to the box and waited. We didn't want to open it while the bird was inside. It didn't take long for the male bluebird to fly out. Seeing is believing, I guess. I was thrilled to know that we now have a bluebird in the box. I had to come right in and share it with the forum. Sorry I'm so long-winded! David

Nicknack, can you get a van ert to trap the hosp that are nesting now? They come in the mail pretty quick and are usually easy to install,then you can be rid of the pest. Can you get the new gilbertsons but keep the others up for tres or whomever? I think sometimes these birds like a variety of types to choose from. I'm not sure how they come as far as being easy to install,but I bet your local wild bird store would have all the necessary hardware to make it easy to mount your new boxes. Thank you for baffling and caring for these birds.