I discourage the wrens. I take any sticks they put into a box away as quickly as possible. From the information I've read on the Sialis website, if you let wrens nest, you will soon be overrun with wrens. The wrens will poke holes in the Bluebird's eggs, or toss out their chicks. So if you're trying to get Blues, I would certainly discourage the wrens.

I was afraid that might be the case, they all look around the same size (martins) and info I found today said that the martins usually start to arrive here in February and look for nesting spots. In addition to All the other potential dangers/problems with the house/location where these martins are possibly planning to nest and raise babies, same neighbors also have a HAMM RADIO tower in their back yard and every year around late spring/ summer a great horned owl perches up there on and off and and hoots, I've heard him and seen him up there several nights in a row before. Is there anything I can do at this point, like put up a safe Martin house, or will they stay there now regardless? I'm hoping that if I talk to neighbors and explain the situation, they will do something about it. I feel sick at the thought of the martins going through whole process and end up losing babies or being harmed themselves. If I thought there was a possibility that they would relocate this late in the game, I'd gladly put up a safe place for them to nest and make sure it stays that wAy, although I'd be learning as I go, ughh, whole situation makes me nervous. I'm going to post the pics of the house and the birds tonight, I'm pretty sure the house is not the ideal layout either, it has little porches with metal railings on both floors and another railing across top and from what I've read so far, that makes it easy for owls to get to them. Thanks

The magic halo works for the first week or so until they get used to it and brave enough to ignore it. My HOSP use it to swing on and land on the short perches I use. They also swing on it back and forth to get the seeds out of the feeder without having to actually land on the perches. It does seem to keep the numbers down as some are wary of it and it does seem to hinder them somewhat, but I have lots of HOSP and they will try anything.

It seems really unusual that there would be House Wrens in southern Georgia during the summer. They are supposed to be winter residents there. The punctured eggs however lead me to think that it would have to be a HOWR. It is also weird that there were only two eggs punctured and they were all still in the box at first: from my own experience with HOWR attacks, they puncture ALL the eggs and drop them right outside the box. It may have been a HOWR that did everything, or it could have been a HOWR that punctured the eggs, and then something else may have eaten the eggs. According to a birding book that I own, House Wrens are "common in open woodlands, shrubs, farmlands, suburbs, gardens, and parks." It's really hard to pinpoint exactly what happened here. Make sure they get a predator baffle and a sparrow spooker on their box for the next time the Blues lay eggs. Wren guards are often ineffective after an attack has already occurred on a box. If you are going to put up a wren guard, I would suggest either relocating the house by atleast 100 feet, or rotating the box 90 degrees. There is a very simple design for a wren guard using the corner of a Cheese-It box which can be put up and taken off very quickly. Usually when one of our boxes gets attacked by HOWR, we never see or hear them... one minute the eggs are there, the next they are gone. They are very sneaky. Good luck. Ken