Today (Dec 15th) I mailed seeds to: * fanatic79 * foodiefish * habjolokia * jaynine * lorabell * misterpatrick * naturemitch * penguinsrock09 * phpete * scorpionjohn * theloud * tinley244 PLEASE let me know when your envelopes arrive so I can update my records. That's the last of the envelopes from this forum. Have a very Merry Christmas everyone. Thanks....Heather

Apparently the incubation phase is over. I see both male & female BB sitting on top of the box together frequently. Alternating hanging onto the openning. The female rarely goes all the way in; I assume it must be very crowded in there! The male appears to be cleaning the nest as I observe particles in his beak as he reaches in and flys away with something white. The eggs that are going to hatch must be done. The female hangs on the front; reaches in; then flys away, I assume, to gather food. I am not sure how many of the second set of seven eyes hatched. I have tried to get a peek but the two birds are very busy and frequently around the box. I have chosen to stay away to not disturb them. It has continued to be a joy to watch them at work. I hope to get an opportunity by the end of the week to observe the number of little birds in the nest. I'll be VERY CAREFUL when I open the box to see. A neighborhood cat has spotted the nest; yesterday I walked out toward the nest and it ran away. I'll keep an eye out for him. I like cats, but, certainly do not want it to harm the BB. Thanks for all the helpful information. BJT in South Carolina

Wow sorry Linda, I hear your pain. We have HOWR here every summer and we did lose 1 egg (of four) in July 2007. But I don't think our wren situation is as difficult as yours seems to be. We see them nearby occasionally, and often hear them not too far away. But we chase them off if/when any come on our property. And our parent Blues (Missy & Mr.B) both discourage them ferociously if they ever come near Missy's box. This pair has successfully fledged 41 baby blues in the past 3 seasons (8 completed nests with a 9th underway), without a single loss of either egg or chick to the wrens. We've made our decision not to use a wren guard for reasons we are comfortable with. And frankly we've heard just too many accounts of HOWR destroying nests in boxes that had wren guards installed. We know that many bird lovers willingly allow and even encourage House Wrens to nest and breed, and this can lead to their forcing many other songbirds out of a habitat completely. (The same could be said of the House Sparrows). So, I'm not sure how to offer you specific advice or comfort. I fear it will be up to you and your Bluebirds to overcome your local HOWR problem. Best luck to you and your birds, Kenn Here is a link that might be useful: Kenn & Temple's Bluebirds

glhandler....you mentioned checking the box often on this nesting that fledged on day 14. Had you checked it on the day they fledged? You could have caused them to prematurely fledged by opening the box that late. You said they fledged on 6/17 that is two days ago. A newly fledged baby bluebird would not be following the adults to the feeders yet at all. They stay hidden in the trees and the parents go feed them. They don't normaly follow the adults to feeders until at least 7-10 days and sometimes longer. You are probably seeing some first nesting fledges with the adults not the newly fledged ones. Hopefully these early fledges are ok, I doubt they would fly real well at that age. I had one fledge on day 14 once because I opened the box...he couldn't fly at all. Put him back in and added a hole reducer. Day 15 he still couldn't fly but the other three could (not well but they got lift off) and I let him be. He did end up making it ok but opening the box after day 12/13 isn't a good idea. Not sure that you did that actually though but if so it might have been why they fledged. Donna