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First off, you need to keep your cat indoors. If you are worried about it having scared off the blues, think of what it could do to newly fledged birds that cannot fly well.
Second if you think you don’t have coons, think again. They are pretty much everywhere in the US, they hunt at night so often you do not see them. Please don’t put the house up on anything that a predator could climb up and set the birds up for failure. Mount it on a piece of 1″ conduit with a wobbling stovepipe predator baffle and place at least 15 feet away from anything a predator could jump from.
Donna in WI
I have used wren guards on Gilwoods with no problems, I made it go out the 2″ from the furthest edge of the front, not the door if that makes sense. Both times were on Chickadee nestings but I don’t see why it would be any different with bluebirds. I had sides on mine too.
Donna in WI
Just try to brush the ants out of the existing nest. Do not put fresh lawn clippings in the box, don’t put anything in the box. If you do remove the start of the nest, she will rebuild.
Donna in WI
Congrats!! Hope the wrens don’t find them.
I have a box (in the woods) of Dees, should be hatching any day now, and a woods full of wrens. So far so good!!
Donna in WI
Well it has been an entire week now since I trapped that female in the box. He is still here singing away, she is not. I do believe it scared her away. Another female was here on Friday (she didn’t seem as brightly colored as the first female so I think it was a different one), she was only here for a short time and he was showing her a different box on the other side of the yard. She left too. Not sure what is up with this….he is still singing away outside going back and forth between the two boxes. Hoping he finds a female.
Here he is in all his glory…
Donna in WI
Scot yes wren guards are just homemade. Cardboard, a pair of scissors and duct tape and you are set! Here is a pic of mine on my Dee box.
I first put it up without the sides, then added these sides and then later made the sides a bit longer. The sides prevent the wren from landing on the top of the house and looking over the edge and seeing the hole.
Donna in WI
A 1 1/8 reducer will keep a HOSP out of the nestbox. They need a 1 1/4 inch to get in. I have two nest of Dees right now, each incubating 6 eggs (I had 8 & 9 count last year). One of my boxes is just in the woods line, that one has a wren guard (with sides) on it as we always get wrens. Wrens have been here for well over a week now, maybe two and so far so good. My other box with Dees is not in wren territory. During nestbuilding a HOSP was trying to claim the box. I put up a sparrow spooker and she went on to lay the 6 eggs. The other day a pair of Bluebirds were sitting on the sparrow spooker so I added a 1 1/8″ reducer the to box. The Dee accepted it right away. Hopefully they will make it. Chickadees are very tolerant of wren guards even put up during nestbuilding. Just don’t add the sides right away. If no bird can see the hole, they are less likely to try to check it out.
Sorry about your Dees, so sad!
Donna in WI
I count the day after they hatch as day one. They are one day old the day after they hatch, not the day they hatch.
Donna in WI
Do you have a baffle on the pole, if not get one up asap. Having said that if it was a raccoon and there were eggs you wouldn’t have found them on the ground. Opossums do not get into nestboxes. Most likely a sparrow or a wren. I realize you said you had a spooker up but that isn’t fullproof.
I myself would remove the nest and possibly turn the box a bit so they may try again. Typically they won’t renest where they have had a failure unless there are no other housing options available.
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.
Donna in WI
They do not need to mate each time between eggs, I believe she stores the sperm needed. Although often they do mate multiple times. I had a male go mia after the female laid her four egg clutch one year. He was gone four entire days, returned late morning of the fifth day. In that time I trained her to a mealworm feeder since she was incubating and he was not around to feed her. She then trained him to the feeder. I have heard/read they could be off mating with other females. Hope you see him soon.
Donna in WI
I know I was. LOL!! I was freaking out and no one to freak out with me. I am better now though that I know she was in there. Plus she cannot be at the hole of the box if she is incubating. I took the other streamers down now. I want to try to keep a good record of this since they don’t use nestboxes very frequently. Going to order some mealworms next week and see if maybe they will feed them to the young. Would be awesome to have them bring the little ones to the feeder. If it is one of the same nuthatches that have been here before they do use the mealworm feeder.
The bluebird pair I saw in the yard are down at the park and seem to be interested in one of the boxes down there. At least I will have bluebirds to monitor although I wish they were in the yard.
Donna in WI
Still talking to myself here….
Hadn’t seen the Nuthatches at all today other than that one time this morning. Even though I saw one go in I was sure they abandoned the nest. Just went out to look and nope she must be incubating like I sort of thought. Opened it up and could see the 5 eggs now, yesterday when I checked you couldn’t see anything, it was all covered up. I guess I can stop obsessing over the fact that I haven’t seen them!
Took some quick cell pics…
The eggs, looks like mud balls in there too.lol
and the nest….lots of what could be bunny fur….
Donna in WI
