Well after moving the nest with the babies to the new nest box and doing everything we could think of to keep them safe, and putting mealworms out every day for mom and dad we have been counting down the days until we thought the two little ones would fledge. Today when we got home from work we put fresh mealworms out and sat on the deck as usual. As soon as I walked up on the deck and sat down the male showed up.

He ate a lot of the worms and then he flew away. We were surprised that he didn't take any to the nest like he had been doing. We watched him fly up into a very tall and thick tree several hundred yards away from our yard.

Then the female showed up and she ate but didn't go to the nest. We thought this was very strange. As we kept watching them we never saw them go to the nest. It has been nineteen days since they hatched and I told my wife "I think they are gone". So we opened the box very carefully, and sure enough the two little ones were not there. The box was empty.

We were so happy and sad at the same time. We sat on the deck and watched as the parents came to the feeder and grabbed a beak full of worms and kept flying back up to that same big tree. At that point we knew they must be up there and doing Ok. Now we are hoping they will bring the little ones down to the feeder so we can see all four of them together.

Is tomorrow too soon to clean out the box? And I was planning on using some mild dish soap water in a bucket to clean it all up like new. I'm hoping we can get another nesting yet this year.