Thanks Thom. Hopefully they will green up some more and be able to grow. I think I have been really lucky with this project. I seem to have light conditions in my west facing window that the AV (and a couple of begonias) really like. As long as I don't forget to water them, they have been pretty easy so far. Here is one of my baby trays. I don't know if I was supposed to put multiple leaves in each cup, but I did, and now I am contemplating "up cupping" them and wondering how much I will damage the roots when I gently try to separate them. I think some cups only have 1 leaf, some have 2, a couple have 3 leaves and one or two of the minis have 4 leaves in there! Talk about beginners luck! LOL! Anyway, here is a group shot.... Thanks again Alexa

I have heard of females fighting and one female actually evicting the other female on more than one occasion. Sometimes the male will then abandon the babies for the new female. I think it happened to me last year at the end of my second nesting but I couldn't be sure. I've not ever heard of them throwing eggs out though but anything is possible. There may be a shortage of males in your area and desperate birds do desperate things. I have a shortage of females here this year. We had a really hard winter and sadly I think some did not make it. Some years go so smoothly and some do not. I hate the soap opera drama some nesting seasons bring. LOL Cathy

Do you have House wrens around, they can and will remove eggs and or hatchlings from Blues nest and throw them out. Since your adults are both feeding the babies I wouldn't worry about the females behaviour. She may just be watching out for the bird that took her other eggs. As far as the egg that is left, I wouldn't worry about it. It happens sometime and it won't cause any harm to leave it in there. Oh, do you have a sparrow spooker on the box to prevent HOSP from harming the babies or adults? Check out sialis.org for more info on them. Donna

When hungry, rabbits will gnaw the bark of young tender trees. They love fruit trees such as apples. you reported the gnaw ring was 3 ft above the ground - think snow depth. If it is the work of a rabbit, the gnaw ring will be about 10 inches above the snow crust at the time of the gnaw. One winter, I lost 5 new fruit trees to rabbits. Rabbits prefer the thin bark of young trees to that of a mature trees with thick, dead bark scales. The damage usually occurs after snow has covered the bunny's food sources. I have experience with red squirrels, too. One harsh winter, red squirrels killed my lilacs. They stripped the bark off the limbs starting on the upper part of the twig and worked downward. I have never seen gray squirrels eat bark. They will nip the tips off evergreen trees. They like spruce and arbor-vitae. Porcupines will girdle evergreen trees especially pine. Beaver can bite deep enouth to eventually fall a tree. They prefer young tender decidious trees for food (up to 6 inch diameter), although they will take pine as well. However, given enough time, they can fall a mature tree. I live in a small town (population 10,000) with big cities nearby. I've been here 33 years without beavers, but 3 years ago, a pair moved into a small creek that drains the town and established a dam and beaver house behind a rental property. I discovered them when I noticed that group of small trees by a drainage ditch had been fallen. Froma distance, I though that vandals had been at work with hatchets, but on closer inspection, I saw it was the work of a beaver and that was confirmed when I discovered the beaver dam and two beaver huts. This was surprise. We do have beaver in remote areas. It is rare to see them take up housekeeping in an urban setting.