I have one house that's being used this year. Same one as last year. The new houses I built and hung last fall have no residents. I've read they are territorial and will reuse the same nesting box for several years. I was hoping to have a few pairs, but I'll take the one. I tried to get photos inside the house yesterday, but mama bird wasn't too eager to let that happen. And I didn't want to scare her away. I've been seeing other broken eggs laying around the yard. They're tiny and white. I'm thinking the squirrels are the cause.

Ivy, I think the only thing sadder than taking down the nesting area now would have been to have had to take it down after the eggs were laid. It must be awful when you have to take down "occupied" nests! There used to be a lot of bald eagles here when I moved up to this end of town about 15 years ago. It was on the very edge of the developed area and there were big old cottonwood trees along the roads overlooking huge fields of prairie dogs. One morning on the way to work I counted a dozen of them. It was way cool! Now all the old trees are gone and everything is built up and the eagles are gone! At least the Rocky Mountain Arsenalnow wildlife preserveis close enough that they had somewhere to go. Sure wish there were still a few around here to watch! Now I have to watch the bird cams if I want to see eagles! I was planning to put something on top of the box to keep them away, Bean, but I was so tired when I razed the condo yesterday that I almost dropped the bricks on top of my head when I took down the roof! Today I crisscrossed some of the shims I had used for leveling the roof on top of the box, and Im pretty sure theyre off to other digs. When I took the old nest down I was wondering if the robins might be into recycling, so I put it down in the perennials near the condo site, and today I noticed that the one side of it has disappeared, so I think they are using some of the old building materials in the new nest! Itll be interesting to see if more of the old nest disappears in the next few days. I didnt see them around too much today, but then I was out in the backyard all afternoon. At least they werent hanging out staring at me anymore!!! If your tree is no taller then me, Digit, Im not sure it even qualifies as a tree! Im 5'3"! Yeah, I know how tough they areand it looks like theyre up, up, and away already. And, oh, yeah! Theyll be back for the worms! Sometimes it gets very frustrating when Im "fixing" the bark mulch over and over and over where the robins have been digging for wormsbut theyre always forgiven! Its fun to have robins around. Im amazed how close theyll get to me when Im out working in the yard. I think were familywhich didnt help when I had to evict them! Ever since I moved in here the house sparrows have been building a nest in the Euonymous thats growing up the side of the house at the end of my deck, but it made such a mess in the flower bed below it that this past fall I pulled the nest and most of the Euonymous down (and out from under the siding!) I can live without the house sparrows! At the last house a pair of hairy woodpeckers built a nest in one of the dying limbs in the cottonwood in my backyard! It was fun to watch them the year they nested in it. Before they could come back the next year, the limb fell off of the tree! When it was cut up I saved the section of the limb where they built the nest. I keep thinking maybe some day Ill mount it on a post or something and Ill see if anybody else would like to live in it! It sure is amazing what woodpeckers can do with just their beaks! Maybe you need to hire some woodpeckers to build some nests for you, David! ;-) Skybird

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.

Ok...so I believe Google helped me ID this as a zebra finch. Looks like it's native to Australia! Must be someone's escaped pet? Wonder how he's doing today? He's a long way from home here in NE FL.