Jane, if you only have one feeder out, you might try a good mixture with black oil sunflower seeds stirred into it. Don't get the cheapie kind with those little reddish-brown "BB's" in it. I have never seen ANYTHING actually eat those. I get mine at PetSmart, and I really love the Stokes mixture that has no hulls in it. I feed it, black oiler sunflowers and safflower seed. Safflower seed goes into a feeder that doesn't have squirrel protection, because they don't really like it, but cardinals and titmice do. HOWEVER, no matter what you are feeding, there will be times when birds are not around for various reasons. I have hardly any right now, mostly due to a pair of hawks hanging about our neighborhood. And even without the hawks, birds often disappear for a few weeks now and then. One more thing...don't forget that WATER is probably even more important than seed in luring birds to your yard. You'll notice that most of Maureen's pictures feature her great birdbath. Be sure to provide several "baths" around the yard. They can be anything from decorative features to trashcan lids on the ground with 2" of water in them. I often turn clay pots upside down and put a clay saucer on top for water. Keep the water CLEAN and shallow, maybe even adding a rock in the center for birds to stand on. Good luck! Marcia

Lisa, Lisa, Lisa, have you been staying up late again watching Disney Movies? Just teasing but it does sound a little disneyesque no? Very cool if these birds were watching over a baby regardless of what kind of bird. My Bluebirds are a tiny bit delayed in fledging so maybe the weather is affecting all of them. I am keeping my fingers crossed for your beautiful babies to fledge healthy and happy when they are ready.

Thanks! I know it's a long slideshow, but the day I got ambitious enough to upload photos from Twitpic, I decided that since I was on a roll I'd put birds from the past month. Strangely, the birds here are VERY shy-even common birds dive into the trees at the sight of a human taking interest in them. I usually have to go far back into the jungle or surprise birds to get them in camera range. It's not like it was in Australia and Tasmania, with exotic birds hanging off the trees everywhere, even downtown. I asked a Thai about it and he said that people often shoot and eat birds here.

I've used a product called flash tape to discourage a cardinal from attacking my window. What I used was about an inch wide, red on one side and silver on the other. I thumbtacked it in a big X across the window, twisting gently so it's in a spiral. I've used this to protect seedlings from birds as well. I got it at the hardware. Cheap, easy -- it will look goofy on your window but shouldn't take many days to discourage him. Arlene