Sounds like time well spent. Now let's hope that House Wren stays away. You haven't gone off the edge, just dedicated and doing the best you can. We have to make sure they accept the changes we make. Most of them learn pretty quickly. They do teach one another. I love to share this story from my backyard: An older female (with us for years) took a young male, probably his first adult year, as her new mate after her mate was lost. The nest was complete with eggs, and they both knew how to use the mealworm feeder. Evidently, he was ready to feed the youngsters already and kept taking beakfuls of mealworms to the nestbox, and dropping them on the eggs! Well, each time he did that, she would follow him, retrieve the mealworms from among the eggs, and return to the feeder to feed HIM! It was priceless. Eventually, he got the idea, and fed her. Many of us have seen their courting behavior, when the male feeds the female as she begs like a fledgling, wings all fluttering. But this was a first for me! BlueBars

We have something similar going on. Like you in previous years our birds have fledged and maybe two weeks later they appear as a 'family' and are usually quite cautious -- taking their time to creep closer and closer to the yard. This year our first brood was actually of 4... for some reason one female just didn't want to leave. We didn't see her brothers/sisters at all and were very worried that something happened to them. When Mom had her second brood this female would hang out (literally) on the box, peeking in the entrance, to the point where Mom and Dad got a little ticked with her! Haven't seen her in a while now.... Now we have an only child from the second brood. There were 4 eggs but only one hatched. He fledged just 4 days ago and appeared in the yard yesterday (3rd day) and again this morning. He's actually quite brave coming straight into the garden instead of hanging back in the trees or on a popular perch (neighbor's satellite dish). Mom also started on her 3rd nest yesterday wasting no time! Will be interesting to see how long he stays around.

When i first read this account the question that came to my mind was, what is the motivation for the parking space tag? Lets face it, there are 7 parking spaces and 5 vehicles which commonly park there. If my math is correct that would mean there are at least 3 open spaces when tenant #2 parks her vehicle before you arrive. Is is merely a co-incidence that she repeatedly selects the parking place that you have been using? I think not. It appears to me that tenant #2 is playing parking space tag with your for one of two reasons: 1. Obviously there is some type of bad blood between tenant #1 and tenant #2 and no doubt tenant #2 has observed you talking to tenant #1 at some point. Tenant #2 is dying to find out what is being said about her by tenant #1, but since there has been no previous contact between you and tenant #1 she is reluctant to initiate conversation for fear of what your opinion of her might be based upon what she supposes tenant #1 may have said. 2. Tenant #2 may genuinely find you attractive and would like to make your aquaintance but has not found a way to make the initial introduction without appearing to be too bold. In either case, tenant #2 has elected to play this silly parking space tag game to perhaps antagonize you into initiating a conversation.

Sounds to me more like depression or another mental illness. If it's been going on for 10 years, steadily, it seems unlikely to be menopause, imo. I could be wrong, but my meno changes have been intermittent with really bad periods of depression and anxiety, and spontaneous return to my normal state of function, and normal periods normally lasting much longer than the depressive ones. See if you can try and get her to seek medical attention. Mrs H