Maybe a zebra swallowtail got confused? :) My Wagner book lists the trumpet vine sphinx as a moth that will use passionvines. I tried to find out what the egg of a trumpet sphinx would look like, but when I got on the Oehlke site, my computer froze up like it's done before on that site. So I don't know specifically what that type egg should look like, but I do know that the sphinx moth eggs I've found in the past have all been remarkably loosely attached to the leaf - it's amazing they stayed on. So, if this egg looks like it's about to fall off, it's probably the trumpet sphinx, and, even if it's well attached, it could possibly be that moth. I hope you'll raise it and share pictures! Sherry

Today I found an egg in that nest! It's 2cm long (20.5 mm). According to http://www.sialis.org/eggsizes.htm it could be a Carolina wren or House sparrow. It's larger than the wren and smaller than the sparrow. While investigating, a carolina wren was screaming at me from a near by bush, and it seemed to be very upset with me for being there. It may be his nest or he could have a nest near by. I installed spooker on bluebird house that on this yard. Just in case if this is house sprarrow nest. Babies pretty big in this box. (I wrote abot 4 babies earlier, but I was wrong about quantity) I can't stay on that yard for long to make sure they accepted it because have small baby with me right now. Do you think this is a good idea or I should take it down? This is the box Janie - birds lay one egg in day, and same, as you wrote it earlier, skip a day in egg laying. She starting incubation only after she will lay her last egg. All this time eggs stay cold - up to 10 days if she skipping days and lay 5 egg. I surprised that this is new for you.

Yes I can and Good point, exactly why I said it's ok to disagree and that PMrs and Bluebirders go to great lengths to protect their birds. The difference is you KNOW what bird laid the cowbird egg. Lets put it this way, you know the cowbird egg, if hatched is going to kill the host birds babies so 1 cowbird lives and 3-4-5 other babies die. That cowbird has laid many eggs in many nests we dont see ....we know this, a whole nest is not lost, that cow bird WILL have offspring. 1 egg not being allowed to hatch is much different than removing a whole nest, especially when you dont even know what bird built it. My biggest problem with this is.... a PMr should understand the challenges birds face from pesticides and loss of habitat to upity people that tear down nests because they dont want a little poop on their porch. You know as well as I do the proper thing to do would have been to ID the bird and move the nest to an appropriate place if nessary. You also know that people who know nothing about birds come in and read these posts to learn, what kind of message is Casi's post sending? I got no argument with her protecting her PMs, just with the fact she did not spend one second to try to let both nests flourish.

I was alone on Thanksgiving once (hubby working in Singapore) and cooked a cornish game hen in a cast iron dutch oven on top of the wood stove. I used the dutch oven cover to cover the dutch oven it to make it more oven like rather than letting all the heat escape. My hen turned a beautiful golden brown and was delicious. After the hen was done, I also baked a pumpkin pie in the dutch oven on top of the wood stove. It was the best pumpkin pie I've ever made. Why did I do all that cooking on top the wood stove rather than on my perfectly good gas range/oven you ask? Because I was alone, had plenty of time on my hands and I was thinking about how the pioneers cooked their food over a fire and I wanted to see if I could do it. Turns out I could and did.