Ironically, the weeds, overgrowth, and tangle of vegetation are very attractive to most birds. It provides them with cover and nesting sites, and there are usually berries, seeds, and insects in the vegetation as well. They don't care that the plants are too close together, or whether a bed is edged perfectly or sprayed for weeds. I had a very overgrown yard when I moved here 10 years ago, with many invasive plants. The only thing I continually remove are invasive plants, and in stages because I've done most of the work myself by hand. Sometimes I wish it had gone faster, and been "overhauled" as you are doing, but I tried to preserve habitat. I left some thickets of vegetation, and left "snags" or dead trees up in the back yard purposely to provide nesting habitat for cavity nesters (and Black-capped chickadees are cavity nesters). I had Bluebirds nesting in snags here for 2 years, until the snags fell over. I also leave up some dead branches for perching and insect value. I would suggest that you go over to All about birds, and read about the BCCD. Also observe the little chickadee's habits in your yard, where they like to "hang out", and perhaps leave some habitat intact throughout the overhaul.

You need to add a hole reducer to the box, probably asap in hopes mama dee can begin incubating if she has laid her last egg. I think the bluebird site (sialis.org) has instructions on how to make one or you can order on-line.

I have heard of a Bluebird killing an adult Chickadee when the Dee looked in the Bluebirds active nestbox. However I doubt a Blue would harm the Dees just because they want the box. With the nesting material pulled out it sure sounds like a raccoon, although normally a raccoon would eat the babies, unless like Cathy said, it got interrupted. I know cats can jump to the top of boxes but I am not sure if they can reach in the box like a coon can and would pull stuff out, cats are notorious for killing and not eating their prey. How old were the baby Dees? I would think if they were around 16 days which would be fledging time (since you said they were ready to fledge) they would be too big for a wren to mess with. The HOSP could easily kill the babies but they wouldn't mess with the nest like that. Did you look at the babies at all for peck marks on the head or teeth marks on the bodies?? So sorry this happened!! Donna

PF, I have a video of Delane's--her roses of course. But on the tape, she does a stroke leaf that may be what you are talking about. The difference I saw between her's and DD's was that she did not turn the brush around so both edges of the leaf were dark on the outside. She made both strokes holding the brush the same so the 2nd stroke actually made the vein in the middle of the leaf. Gosh, it's hard to describe things in words isn't it? LOL Yes, I'm aware that stroke painting was around long before DD came along--but DD was just able to turn it into a sort of "gimmick" that caught everyone's attention and her advertising and marketing strategies sure paid off for her, didn't they? I would imagine that she might have ticked off a few of the established painters in the beginning, but I also imagine even they were later appreciative of the fact that her "One Stroke" campaign sure got allot of people interested in painting. I loved it in the late 80's, early 90's when there were so many cute painting shops around and you could buy supplies, take classes, or just see some of the finished projects and they made you want to make one too! Now they are almost all gone, and even Michael's here has done away with their painting book section! I asked where they moved it, and they said "Oh, we took it out to make room for more beads". Now if I want a book, it's either order online--or watch for older ones to show up at the TS. This area had allot of painters back in the day--and I keep thinking several of them may be getting "too old" to still be painting and might be getting rid of their stash of books, so I always look for them. (Not that I NEED more--but I just love looking through them and admiring all the designs) ;o) Did you read Anj's post about finding stacks of painting books at one of the TS she went to this week--she bought lots of books for only 25 cents each! I've kept the rose worksheet you made for us and have tried to follow it. My biggest problem is that since I learned the DD rose first--that one just keeps "popping" out of my brush strokes! LOL I'd love a step by step worksheet on how you do your leaves. I have read some of the books where the artist did multiple layers of floats to get the realistic effect--I just don't have the patience to do all the mixes and layers I guess, I prefer just the "suggestion" of a leaf most of the time because that's so much easier and "atainable" for me. (Big sigh) This is fun chatting about painting. Luvs