Thank you Carol, you have a wonderful talent for making writers feel good about their work. I shared the story with the ranger who manages nest boxes at Asilomar. Her response: “I’ve experienced this myself — the immediate attachment to a pair of nesting birds, only for it to end up being another harsh lesson in the circle of life. I monitor nest boxes at the Asilomar Conference Grounds and this happens so often, and it never gets easier. But there are successes as well!”