Two Christmas' ago our son, Peter, gave us a bluebird house made by a small
company in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. A few weeks ago I finally got around
to putting up the nest box and today we were rewarded by seeing a pair of
bluebirds carrying nesting material to the house. These are the first
bluebirds we have seen in our yard in downtown Abingdon in at least 25
years. As they say "if you build it they will come". I think the caveat is
that it needs to be in a good neighborhood as well. We have also seen the
return of our cat birds. We found several years ago that we could cut
apples in half and place them on our back porch railing and the catbirds
would eagerly eat them until they started having to find insects for their
young. The porch is located near a hawthorn tree which provides security
for the fairly timid birds. Ed Morgan, Abingdon, VA
