Butterflymomok and misssherry, I am happy to see that you all know the value of Larry's expertise, but I am definitely not surprised. I just stumbled into the forum as a newbie, and it will take a while to examine and read through old threads. I will try to catch up and contribute as I may to the discussions. Fortunately, my specialization is different than Larry's in that I work with noctuid moths primarily. I do a great deal of rearing and life history work. I stress the importance of valuing biodiversity because so much remains to be discovered, even right here in the US. The group referred to in my previous post has yielded 11 new species and one new genus and species in California alone. And we are talking about colorful day-flying moths that have simply been overlooked. I first found one new species in the MEDIAN STRIP of I-5! I was in a net swinging frenzy until the Highway Patrol intervened. There are wonderful things to be discovered everywhere: here at home as well as in far flung jungles. As, it turns out, Larry and I passed like ships in the night in one of those far away jungles over a decade ago. I didn't know that, of course, when I joined in the forum, but I couldn't shake the notion that I should know who Larry was. I was trying to place who he might be and used the the language of Papua New Guinea, tok pisin, to test the hypothesis and to offer my bona fides to Larry. The Larry I was thinking of would be one of the few people on earth to understand the references I wrote in that language. I am so happy to have rediscovered him! Misssherry, if you look at our tok pisin entries you will see the word "wantok", which means "friend". Tok pisin is a true pidgin language. "Wantok" (friend) comes from "one talk", meaning sharing one form of talk or thought, a bond. On this forum, we are all talking of the same thing; we share a bond and a love for our natural world. We, therefore exhibit "one talk". We are, therefore, all wantoks. Terry PS to Larry: Mi save tru yu wan bel...

I am from Rhode Island Trail is in northern RI Bluebirds are not hardy there flocks crash will high snow levels. And cold. Mild seasons they expand there local numbers. When there found dead in spring means there food supply was low and they expired. You will also see some dead threw out spring after a late cold snap the birds will just end up missing but we know it was the late cold snap. Many are weaken from the trip north once they show up and winter returns large numbers perish. It weeds out the old and sick. Ray

For some reason bluebirds are intent on forgetting their responsibilities and this is a good reason their attempts to nest end in failure. I'm sure they would have gone extinct if it wasn't for us! Unusual indeed. Last season I had one parent (male I believe it was) feeding the hatch-lings, and the female NEVER went in to feed the babies. That's if my memory is serving me correctly. This is my 6th season, so it's getting hard to remember what exactly happened when. In one case here in Ohio, it was 70 degrees one evening - nice and warm - the babies were ALL gaping like crazy! The blues didn't seem to feed their young AT ALL. I was SO mad! This resulted in the ENTIRE clutch starving to death the next day when it was cold, blustery, cloudy, and only 50 degrees. The mom continued brooding but the young were doomed. I pulled the poor things out of the nest, buried them, and called it a day. Sounds like things are getting better. Unfortunately I suffer set-backs nearly every season. This time the 1st egg of the season disappeared. Could have had a full clutch by now! Sometimes it's just irritating seeing these birds become so careless, but so long as the parents stay alive, everything will be okay. I'm just not fortunate to have many successful attempts each season despite doing so many things right. Good luck from here on out! ~Tim~

About a month ago, Bluesman posted on the Bird watching forum about a type of entrance hole that allows Tree Swallows to enter, but not HOSP. He said - "There is a House Sparrow resistent entrance to keep them out of Tree Swallow houses but unfortunately Bluebirds cannot get in this. It works great for Tree Swallows though. I will see if I can post a picture of it. I first heard of it from a man in Canada named Bernie Nikolai. It is simply a 7\8 of an inch tall slot that is about two inches wide. It is in a thin plate around 1\8 inch thick. The House Sparrow cannot enter this but the Tree Swallows being more streamlined and slender bodied can flatten out and get right in. It works so good." The link below is the whole thread. Here is a link that might be useful: Male Purple Martin Using My Clinger Entrance Video!