Your compliments have been passed along to the chef, she is beaming. She has already made a new bin like this one on the far side of the garden. The old one (funny you should ask Colleen) is dead and grey, so she topped it up with a ring of fresh spruce boughs, just for the looks. I'll see about getting a photo of both. I forgot to mention - because I plain forgot; winter tends to wipe the memory banks - that a bunch of shellfish plant waste also went into the pile, and that I purposely diverted shovelsfull of manure that had red wrigglers in it to this pile, so a worm village should not have been entirely unexpected. The problem of separating castings comes partly from the fact that these fine castings are mixed with stalks and clumps of roots. So I think I'll keep adding to the pile this year, give it more time. The perspective in the picture is odd - makes it look like the pallet bins are far from the bird's nest, which looks huge. The wall of it is about 2 1/2' high - a little higher than the dog on the right if that helps. :) How about somebody try this bin using other stuff - sunflower and/or other stalks - and tell us how it goes?

HAHAHA, in all of the years we have been married, we have never gone out to get a cat we have had dozens of drop offs over the years. Just one was a hunter but that meant he hunted everything, frogs, toads, birds and even butterflies. I guess we spoiled them, lol If you are close enough to make it worth your while come rake and bag what I have To correct myself, the young copperheads aren't really copper but I still don't see them in the pine straw jolana

indigo, congrats on your successful Dee nesting!! Best of luck to your Blues too! I looked back on my records from last year and in good weather conditions the Blues started egg laying 3-5 days after completing nestbuilding. Of course what we perceive as a completed nest and what they perceive it as could be totally different and weather plays a big part in it too. This years nests at the park where I monitor nestboxes both pairs of Blues that are there took over 10 days to lay eggs after the nest appeared to be complete however the weather was very cold then and I believe they delayed egg laying. I had a pair of Blues house hunting in my yard yesterday and this morning. I am so hoping they decide to nest here too! Donna

Awwww..so sorry to hear of this. That storm came through my yard too, and took one of my Bradford Pears down. It landed across my driveway, and luckily did not hit the house or our basketball goal. Gosh, it came through really fast. If you are not seeing them back at the house at all, then they have abandoned the nest. You don't need to wait the 2 weeks to remove the nest. Give it a few days, and when you are sure that they have abandoned, go ahead and remove the nest. Maybe they will build there again. There is still plenty of time.~~Angie