It's absolutely clear that the babies are responding to the mother's chirp. She chirps and a lot of mouths immediately open (but she can only carry one caterpillar at a time! and there are eight mouths!) It's going to be a busy few weeks for the parents. Claire

Really? My 8 year old was trying to train them but she probably moves around too much or is too noisy and they all clear when we are out. We have a trail (driving distance) where the chickadees land on you. They are very cute. Do you have paths nearby where such an occurance happens and they are trained? Are they really just naturally friendly? I think I will pick up some unsalted peanuts for her to take out this week since we have so many at our feeder.

DH has problems going to sleep, especially when he gets thrown off his schedule. After 27 years married to the guy, it's my opinion that people should not get locked into strict go-to-sleep schedules because of the problems this causes when they get off of them. But, we are doing many things right. I don't have a problem sleeping, but these are the things we do, for DH . . . and ultimately for me, as well. We keep our bedroom cool and crack a window in Spring and Fall; we keep the patio doors open when the weather permits (Late Spring- Early Fall). We always keep the ceiling fan on. I think that cool, fresh air makes for a better, deeper sleep. I like to read before I go to sleep, but not some hair-raising thriller! If I'm not reading a good before-bed book at the moment, I'll look at a magazine or just daydream for a while with the lights down low. Low lights in the room with a good reading light next to each side of our bed is a must for me. DH likes to watch the nightly news, but I find that listening to all the bad news in the world ~ or to politics ~ just gets me stressed and/or thinking about sad or scary things. Because of that, I've put my foot down and said no tv before sleep. If DH ever feels like he needs to watch tv then, he can do it out in the family room or in the study. I've noticed that he does sleep better when he doesn't watch tv right before bed, though. We don't snack right before bedtime either, although DH likes a glass of vanilla soy milk (yuck!). I prefer hot tea or ice water. Both of us try not to do any thing, like laundry, dishes, cleaning, working out, paying bills, etc. before we head off to bed. The only light in our room when we sleep is from the moon and stars if they're out. I'm glad we don't need to hang blackout drapes here, but I would if we had lights outside that warranted it. Quiet: we live in the mountains and the only sounds we hear at night are the crickets and occasional coyotes. I've never allowed our kids to fall asleep to music or tv. I've read that falling asleep to tv or music can be counter-productive to getting a restful sleep and set you up for a lifetime of sleeping problems. That may not be true in all cases, but it made sense to me and it works for my family and myself. I've heard that a warm, relaxing bath or shower also helps you relax before bed. When my kids were young, I always gave them their baths right before bed and then read them a story or two in their rooms with their lights down low before putting them to bed. From all that I've seen and heard over the years, we are our own worst enemies when it comes to problems sleeping. Saying/believing that we have to do certain things or can't do other things in order to be able to go to sleep only reinforces our sleep problems, IMHO. I know that it's hard to break that downward spiral. Perhaps a hypnotherapist could help. Or maybe your family doc could prescribe a mild sleeping pill for a very short while to help you break your sleep cycle? Whatever you do end up trying, I think the most important thing you can do is stop saying "I can't . . . . " and start believing that you can. Lynn

I bought the camera on Amazon. I don't see the camera by itself on there now but hear is the link to a birdhouse and camera combo. http://www.amazon.com/Nature-Cam-Wireless-birdhouse-Spy/dp/B018YSX1P0/ref=pd_sim_sbs_86_42?ie=UTF8&dpID=31QsyAoYqjL&dpSrc=sims&preST=AC_UL160_SR160%2C160&refRID=0787BZ8559DBZ1THAZZNThe camera shown is the one I purchased a couple of years ago. It has some IR LEDs on it that the camera can pick up at night but the birds will not notice. I left it in the box all winter and it still works. The camera came with around 50ft of cable because there is power, audio, and video signals. I have the cable running up the side of the house into a window. I hooked up that cable to a product I purchased several years ago made by Honestech that is made for transferring VHS tape to DVD. The software from honestech is used to capture the video to an old P4 computer.