Tim, did you put the sparrow spooker up on the Blues box when you saw that first egg? If not, that was your first mistake. I don;t have a HOSP problem here but I alays get the sparrow spooker up asap. I doubt the TRES would remove the Blues eggs if they have their own nesting going. Most likely HOSP or wrens. As far as the feather, twice now I have had blues bring in a small feather in their nestbox, just one both times, nothing like the TRES do so the feather doesn't really mean it was the TRES. If I were you right now, I would clean out the nest and turn the box if possible and hope they renest. Get the spooker up asap if you see an egg. Good luck!

Donna

Over at the local conservation area, the swallows always win out over the bluebirds. Mainly because they gang up on the blues. There are very few bluebirds there, and many TRES. You'll know soon enough if it was the TRES just by watching the box. I would think if it were HOSP they would have stuffed the box with junk and weeds instead of nesting material and a feather. HOSP nests are pretty obvious. Sorry for your frustration.

Thanks for the input everyone. I'm gonna have to look hard into this case and see what's going on.

The Swallow pair were landing on their box and I saw the male and female blue, though not at the box.

I'm under the impression that because of nestbox pairing, using a sparrow spooker wouldn't be a MUST.

This particular pair never had any HOSP claims from day 1 of the season. Most of the local HOSP population seems to be crippled, thanks largely to my Van Ert and DRST trapping, even though I didn't catch many. I think I kinda jumped too much to assume it was the TRES. I've had them nest paired with Bluebirds with no substantial problems the past 2-3 seasons.

There is no evidence of the egg being destroyed either. It doesn't help either that I worked 4-9 today, and thus otherwise couldn't look into this further.

I am just upset that even though I've fought like (excuse my language) hell against the HOSP, mounted my boxes with predator guards, and properly paired the boxes, that I am still having problems. This is the earliest egg EVER layed, and yet I get ANOTHER SET-BACK type of season. I've never had more than 2 successful broods in 1 season. I will investigate more tomorrow.

Tim just a thought- I don't know if tres are capable of removing eggs but I do know they will put their eggs under their nest if they deem them unviable. A few years ago 3 or so tres families stashed their eggs under the nest after a cold snap,even tho I would put them back in the nest they would put them back under the nest so is it possible they did that with the bb eggs? Those tres ended up laying new clutchs of eggs, it was very weird. Of course if tres have evicted the blues I don't know what you would do,we don't have that hiarchy here. Blue rules here so far. Hopefully hosp aren't the problem.
Sue

Lexa, I've seen bluebirds stash the eggs under THEIR nests too, but they are usually visible without removing nesting material.

The Bluebird pair are still here, one landed on the box, and they were behind me in the trees during inspection.

I DID hear a HOSP in an evergreen about 30 ft away, but it didn't approach the box, it flew off eventually. so still no 100% evidence that HOSP did it.

Yes, I did not place the spooker on after the egg was layed because the bluebirds have been very attentive to their chosen box, plus the TRES are next to them. I'm not ruling HOSP out, I just don't see how one would have slipped in, destroyed the egg with no evidence remaining, without the Bluebirds or Swallows attacking it on sight. Their is no dried yolk or egg remains anywhere to be found.

Around here when nestboxes are being chosen if Blues and TRES are here at the same time, the Blues seem to get to decide which box they want. The Blues win over multiple TRES as we have many boxes paired around our yard. Never had any problems between TRES and Blues or TRES and Dees that nested in paired boxes.Either way I hope your Blues go on to renest for you! Good luck!

Donna

Yeah Donna, I think the Blues and Swallows are getting along well.

But do you get mobs of swallows showing up and fighting at the boxes? The swallow pair here tries to run the other swallows off, but the other swallows land on the Bluebirds' box and this is when the blues come in to set things straight.

Another odd occurrence, so now I'm waiting for another egg. How long I wonder? As soon as I see it, the Sparrow Spooker is going up! It seems to be a good defense against OTHER species too! (lessens their interest)

Yes, I get mobs of TRES and I worry each time they will ovewehlm the other birds but they don't. In my yard I have two boxes paired (about 30 feet apart) on the east side of the house, then in the back yard I have two boxes paired on the west side of the house and in the front yard I have two boxes paired on the west side. The boxes on the east are sortof in sight of the boxes in the back west side (a big tree is inbetween) and are about 68 yards from them. The pairs of boxes in the front west are in sight of the boxes in the back west and are about 64 yards apart. I normally have three or four pairs of TRES nesting and a pair of Blues and sometimes a pair of Dees too in our yard. Then I have three boxes at the back of our lot, not in sight of any of the yard boxes and are over 100 yard away from the yard boxes, these normally have two pairs of TRES and one pair of Blues. Then about a half mile away is a park where I had five (now seven) nestboxes. I normally have two or three pairs of TRES and a pair of Blues, may be different this year with the extra two boxes. So as you can see we have lots and lots of TRES in the area. They were mobbing the Blues yesterday but mom is incubating what I think are five eggs so I am not too worried about the TRES this year since the Blues are so far ahead. Weather has been pretty cool here lately so the TRES aren't real serious yet. Last year the TRES kept chasing away the Dees from the paired box (TRES wanted one and the Dees had started a nest in the other). I added a sparrow spooker and the TRES just used it as a perch. The TRES didn't deter the Dees at all though and once the Dees laid their first egg, I added a wren guard. By this time the TRES were nestbuilding so they weren't worried about the paired box anymore.

Good luck, hope yours Blues renest!

Donna

I have two pairs of boxes at home about football field length apart and 2 separate single boxes at my other site.

I had Dees building for the first time, but unfortunately they decided to vacate after the swallows showed up, and now the TRES are building over the Dee nest. They didn't try to nest in the paired box despite putting some moss in it. Unfortunately I have no hole reducer so that wasn't an option. I would think the Chickadees would have moved to the 2nd box, but it looks like they just gave up ... :(

Anyway, I noticed today that the Bluebird nest is getting HIGHER. They (or someone else possibly) is building it taller in the box. I won't ever know what happened. Maybe the male lost his mate and picked up another real quick? I searched the nest and finally found pieces of crushed egg. Who Knows?? Maybe it WAS the Blues. Maybe a HOSP decided to randomly show up just to cause destruction. But once and IF I get that first egg again, you bet that Sparrow Spooker is going up RIGHT AWAY!

Thank you Donna

~Tim~