Maggie- I found some really good info at poultry connection.com. It was incredibly easy. Just get waterproof tape (I used 1" '3M Transpore' from the drug store. Duct tape is oo sticky. This tape was hard to get off though, so I has to cut some feathers. Anyways, simply tape the wing(s) into shape. Wrap around the wings only, and one-2 inches wide is plenty. I left it for 5 days, cut the tape off yesterday and it seems fixed. I will re-tape if necessary but so far so good. Leaving the tape on too long can also cause problems, I hear 1 week is plenty to solve the problem. Angel wing is thought to come from too high protien diet. This corresponds directly to a week where I was given a bag of free broiler food- so basically I cheaped out while the ducklings were in rapid growth and got burned for it.

konrad: Thanks. I've noticed quite a few red-tails sitting in trees on the side of Route 1 in Chester County, PA (Route 1 is a 4-lane lightly used road here). The hawks stare into the grass median, and when they see something, they are quite focused on their prey. In fact, I had to slow down to miss one that was flying into the median. Claire: I remember reading a post here about bluebirds going to a window to ask for food. That was when I first started watching the birds. Well, I thought it was someone's imagination--until I realized it wasn't. There was a time when a mother mockingbird kept screaming at me until I chased a cat from near her nest. When I was feeding the birds regularly, the white-throats, upon seeing me, would jump up from the brush, land in the bushes, and sing to me. Probably the most amusing was when the male and female red-bellied woodpeckers--whom I always call red and rosie--landed in a tree on the side of the house and started shouting at me. I looked at the feeder with mixed nuts and saw it was empty. Once I filled it with their mixed nuts (they like the white ones and always search for them), they left me alone and ate their nuts. Here is something you may wish to try with mockingbirds. While in the yard, I may discover a mockingbird nest by observing the parents repeatedly going towards the same general area. The parents will first land on a nearby branch and look at me. This is where I must obey their rule. When the parent looks at me, I must turn away from the parent. I usually turn my back to them. Then, the parent heads for the nest and I hear the happy chirp of the chicks being fed. I don't know if this is a learned mockingbird trait or if it is instinct. However, the parent will fly away unless I look away while they go to the nest. I've been obeying their rule for years now.

Congrats on adding more blue to the sky! Hopefully, you will see many more fledgings. Sometimes they fly out so quickly, you blink and miss it. Other times, the parents tease them for hours, call them, and hover in front of them with food to coax them out. The funniest one I ever saw (wish I had a picture of this) one fledgling changed his mind in mid-fledge; one wing and one foot out, and one wing and foot still in the box. He must have stayed there a good 20 minutes trying to figure out what to do next. He eventually made it just fine, heaven knows how. Sometimes they are super flyers, popping out and turning in mid air to head right up to the tallest trees. Landing is another matter. I've seen one grab a bunch of leaves and hang upside down for a while, holding on for dear life until he gathered the nerve to fly up higher. They can climb very well, too. It always amazes me how the parents will guide them from one place to the next, and then gather them all up for the night, all snuggled together in a row. I used to think they always fledged first thing in the morning, but I've seen them fledge all times of the day, just before a major thunderstorm, even once at dusk. The most important thing though, is NOT to scare them when fledging time is close. The last thing you want is for them to fledge out of fear before they are really ready. Always keep good notes on your calendar so you know when the age of the nestlings, and do not open the nestbox after day 13 (remember unlucky 13). BlueBars Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.sialis.org/premature.htm

stay with it and try to catch them when the light is strong enough to see by and you might just be rewarded by what can only be described as a bird vortex...when they finally go to roost they will swirl tighter and tighter around the chimney or other suitable spot and one by one drop out of this formation to make their final approach. Unfortunately, if you are in a more heavily urban area with too much light pollution, the street lights coming on right at dusk might make seeing activity above them tough, but keep trying. Its a marvelous thing to watch. The nightjars are much much larger and have a loud distinctive "BEER!" call, and can be heard cruising above parking lots long into the night. for a recording of chimney swift twittering and other id tips, copy paste this: http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i4230id.html