Jim, They are in nest building or nesting mode depending on how lowg they have been there. When the females start nesting they go for much longer periods of time before feeding and when they do come to the feeders it is very quick and then straight back to the nest. This will continue until the eggs hatch and she can leave them a little more often. I keep my feeders up but only use 3 to 4 ounces of nectar to a feeder. Today I was gone to our area plant swap and they must have been a little more active this afternoon now that the weather has turned nice again as the nectar level in all the feeders is noticably a bit lower. Penny

I've been having lots of fun watching the starlings who have a nest in the tree right off my deck. They are wonderful mimics. One sits there and does a perfect robin. I thought I WAS hearing a robin till I really started watching him closely. He has such a wide range of sounds! Also went to the post office today and there is a nest with big fat baby robins outside the front door. They are so darn cute.

I caught this by random. I just happened to turn on the recording in the middle of the first encounter and left it on for 5 hours by accident and found the second battle where you can hear the bee flying in. The next day a chickadee stayed on a branch of a golden delicious apple tree right next to the box and was very vocal and I saw another bee try to get into the box and the chickadee attacked it. It happened so fast I could not tell if the bee was repelled or got in. I risked opening the box real quick to see if I could kill the bee but did not see anything. That night the chickadee slept in the nest and is also in the nest tonight Monday 18th. I don't know if the bee finally gave up or was killed.

You could go with a good, basic panel like a Honeywell Vista 20P (around $80 with the battery), and then use relays triggered by the alarm to power a low voltage light. If you hunt around I'm sure you can find something which can adequately substitute for a siren. And the Honeywell has key fobs as well. The key here is that you don't want something proprietary like simplisafe, but something that can use widely available accessories.