Ohhhhh-your baby Braveheart is gorgeous. But then, Braveheart doesn't know how to bloom anything but fantastic flowers! So glad to see your is doing well. Kate

catcollector, You go girl! How wonderful it is when someone steps up to the plate to do the right thing despite being given the "run around" by all the proper wildlife authorities. Ya know ducks do that imprinting thing when they are little, so we'll just have to start calling you "ducky mom." I think what you are doing is amazing and wonderful. Funny thing is I bet you will learn as much from those little ducky babies as they will from you. I'm certain that once you give them the start they need in life, they will be fully capable of surviving on their own and that's what counts. I commend you for caring. Good luck with your ducks. BooBooBearBecky

We have a house finch nest in our wreath one brood already hatched and fledged, then they were right back at it again. I see a lot of people who don’t notice a disturbance in the nest when the babies go missing. One thing it might be is crows, we had 4 babies and an unhatched egg and a crow came and took all but 2. It tried to come back, but I think we scared it off. We have video of it going to the nest on our doorbell cam. Crows are smart and like to observe, they will watch mama and papa going to the nest and also people checking on it as well. If you are checking on a nest be very aware of your surroundings

Thanks, everyone! Gail, that's an incredibly interesting website. We never knew that house sparrows will enter another bird's house to destroy eggs and kill babies -- and we have tons of house sparrows around here. We've guarded against snakes, raccoons, and other birds such as crows, but the house sparrow threat is new to me. Thank you so much for recommending that website! Back to the drawing board! Attracting bluebirds was easy...we just put up a house and they found it. We've since put up several more around the property. How strange that your nest holds only one baby, Gail. One of the interesting things about bluebirds is that the first batch of babies each year hang around and help the parents feed the second batch of babies. I hope you have good luck! Sorry to hear about your babies, Natal. It's been a dramatic spring for our birds all around. Barn swallows had built a mud nest under the porch roof for years and this spring a phoebe took over that spot and built her nest there. (The mud nest collapsed last summer when the babies fledged by pushing off from the edge.) This morning I looked out and a barn swallow was asleep on a perch near the grass/moss phoebe nest, her head tucked into her wing. The turf wars continue, I guess.