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Long story short: Nest was finished a couple weeks ago, and 3 eggs laid last week. The day after the 3rd egg was laid the nest was disturbed and the eggs were intact but buried throughout the nesting material. I had not had a baffle installed at that time (my bad, that will never happen again!), so my suspicion was a racoon was fishing around and couldn’t really grab any eggs. I very carefully re-positioned the eggs with gloves on and tidied up the nest. Sadly I have not seen mom since the nest was disturbed 4 days ago, but what is perplexing is that dad is still on top of the house every morning since then. He sings and hangs out for a couple hours on and off and is gone the rest of the day.
Am I hopeless that mom is gone? Should I clean out the nest and hope the male attracts a new female for a later brood? If that’s the route I should go, when do I officially give up? I want to learn from my mistake and start over but don’t want to give up too early either.
I’m in NW PA.
It is possible if it was a raccoon that the mom was eaten if she was in the box when it came by. That would be my guess if the female is missing now and the nest was a mess. Not positive but that is what it sounds like to me.
Hopefully your male finds a new female and can start over. Put up a stovepipe baffle so this won’t happen again. “If” it was a raccoon, it will not forget where it got a meal and might be back. As far as the nest I would wait a bit yet and see what happens.
Good luck.
Donna in WI
It is possible if it was a raccoon that the mom was eaten if she was in the box when it came by. That would be my guess if the female is missing now and the nest was a mess. Not positive but that is what it sounds like to me.
Hopefully your male finds a new female and can start over. Put up a stovepipe baffle so this won’t happen again. “If” it was a raccoon, it will not forget where it got a meal and might be back. As far as the nest I would wait a bit yet and see what happens.
Good luck.
Highly doubt she was in the box at night, she had never been to this point, and she probably wasn’t done laying eggs. Baffle is already up.
I think if it was a raccoon it would have been back for the eggs. Put permanent marker dots on the sides of the eggs that are up and see if they are turned in a couple of days. You never want to just get rid of eggs because you are guessing that the Mom is gone. It needs to be pretty definite. Sometimes they are just sneaky. And yes, the eggs would be cold to the touch right now because if she isn’t finished laying then she isn’t incubating yet. Don’t rush in taking those eggs out. It does sound like something might have happened to the momma, but please make sure.
Tammy
I think if it was a raccoon it would have been back for the eggs. Put permanent marker dots on the sides of the eggs that are up and see if they are turned in a couple of days. You never want to just get rid of eggs because you are guessing that the Mom is gone. It needs to be pretty definite. Sometimes they are just sneaky. And yes, the eggs would be cold to the touch right now because if she isn’t finished laying then she isn’t incubating yet. Don’t rush in taking those eggs out. It does sound like something might have happened to the momma, but please make sure.
The raccoon could have tried again, but the baffle was up.
Hi,
I’m going through a similar situation with the next in my yard. I’m fairly certain there was no raccoon as I have a baffle and there were no marks on the box or pole. My female disappeared and then returned. My eggs are now under a nest which has definitely been reorganized. (I’m about to post more on the thread I started …missing mate…). I’m also going to mark the eggs. Please update when you can.
Crazy happenings today. Both the male and female are back (after being gone a week) in and out of the box and have buried the eggs pretty much.
I was just about to clean out the box to see if they would come back and start the process over, but now I don’t know what to do. Would she lay eggs in an existing nest without the build process? Maybe it’s a new couple, and if so I’m thinking I should clean it out?
It very well may be a new couple, or papa may have a new mate – I would almost bet this is the case, since they were gone so long. If this is the case, don’t believe she would lay eggs in a nest she did not build. I had the similar situation this past week – I believe my regular mama of 5 eggs went MIA also, probably got killed or died. Nest was not touched, so I believe something got her. Papa found new mate – & they were very much “in the mood” with all the wing-waving going on. But she never did nest/lay eggs anywhere (I don’t believe). I removed the eggs from old nest after a week and being positive they were no good (put dots on top & were not being rotated & no one going in box at all). I left the nest in for a few days, but was told here that a new female will usually not build or lay in another bird’s nest. So I removed it, and this pair is definitely interested now.
In your situation I believe I would wait a while to see what happens.
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