hey gals and guys... hope all is well. as my few friends know I built a couple of blue bird houses in late winter...one for my place and one for my moms'/sisters' place. the photos you see a little further in my gallery are of the one at my moms'//sisters...they raised a litter that is still in the box. my sis is watching them and she can hear em chirpin...they should be out soon as they started long b4 mine. anyway I finally got a pair of bb's around the end of april in my box here at my place. they made all kinds of noise the day they found the box. the male was so excited. he kept landing on top of the box and chirping at her...she was hard to convince. he would peck on the top of the box and chirp some more...then he convinced her and she went in for a minute and when she came out they 'did it'...lol...he's been quite aggressive. he won my heart when I saw him attack one of those nasty tree rats that was running along the top of my fence. I hope he stays around. anyway for the last couple of weeks it's been fun watching them take turns getting food and going in and out of the box. the other day I was mowing and it was the hottest day we have had. I smelled something not very pleasant and I became alarmed because they seemed to have slowed with the feeding and I saw some other birds trying to go in the box. I feared they where dead so I unhinged for a second and slid the door back and I could see one baby so I quickly shut it back. it had feathers and was looking at me. I was satisfied to know there was at least one. then the last couple of days they still slowed on the feeding then yesterday, the 13th, I saw what appeared to be a small bird hopping around and then I saw daddy come up to it with some food and I knew it was. I grabbed my cameras and headed out. this is the first photo I took so it's not greatly in focus. I have others i'll post later. just as I noticed the chic b4 I came outside I saw a large bird of prey fly in the trees above. the chic froze and stayed that way. dad flew up and checked it out and all was ok. little chic started hoping around and flying a bit. I was messing with my plants and when I looked back I could not find him. later I spotted him/her...as my sister advised me the first to leave the nest may not necessarily be a male...lol.., sitting on one of my limb sculptures...just sitting there pretty as you please. this morning it's hoping all around the back yard and flying more. they are trying to get the others to come out. I don't see but a slight hint of blue on the feathers. can any of you tell if this is male or female. stay tuned. supposedly these birds stick together thru the season until the young ones find mates and then they leave the pack. so hopefully i'm gonna have several of them around. I know the morning after I put the box up at my moms' place there was about 50 of them sitting around looking a it and some males fought over it and then they all left. hope you like the pic and the info and have a great day/evening.... ***chills and thrills***