this is a new one on me!

14 years ago

hey everybody! i'm your blast from the past! :D

i have had an almost-completed nest in one of my nest boxes. this morning, it looked ready for an egg and the male and female were all over the place out there.

today, i come home from work expecting an egg, i open the box and nothing. i mean n-o-t-h-i-n-g! no egg...NO NEST. there was not a single blade of nest left.

now, i've had eggs disappear but i have never, in 13 years, EVER had a whole freaking NEST disappear! i have not heard any house wrens.

how would you explain this???

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Comments (7)

dzyg
14 years ago
Wow, I know house wrens can make short order out of a nest (saw them do it once) but you would think unless it was really windy you would have found pieces outside the box. Are you sure no human could have gotten to the nestbox and taken it out? That would be my only thought other than a wren. Are you still seeing the Blues around at all? I sure hope they can rebuild for you! I have some nestboxes at a park near us, this year I added two more in an area that people walk by alot (not right next to the boxes but about 15-20 feet off the walkpath on mowed grass) so I made sure those you needed a screwdriver to open. I sure hope someone didn't do this to you and your birds!

Donna
lisa11310
14 years ago
Hi Nina Pearl!!!! Donna, she lives out on a farm with Great Danes, Fainting Goats, and Pot Bellied Pigs, no people too close! Nina I have no clue what to tell you, the only thing I could even think of is that a raccoon got over your baffle somehow, pulled the nest out and the goats ate it?????
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Ninapearl
Original Author
14 years ago
hi lisa!!!! LOL!! no way a raccoon or anything else could possibly get to the nest as i have taken every precaution. even if that was the case, would a raccoon raid a brand new EMPTY nest???

donna, lisa is right...i live on a 20 acre farm and the lane dead ends at my house. anybody who comes here is either invited or hopelessly lost! :)
dzyg
14 years ago
Well I would say wren then but hmmmmm. I did once watch a wren dismantle an abandoned chickadee nest in record time though.

Donna
lisa11310
14 years ago
I guess I would have to agree then had to have been an air raid. Since there were no eggs you prolly didn't have a spooker or a Wren guard up. Maybe a Hawk?
Ninapearl
Original Author
14 years ago
nope, no wren guard or spooker up yet. i was waiting for an egg before i did that. i don't see how a hawk could have possibly fit through the entrance hole.

i've had quite a few pairs of blues over the past few weeks so i don't know if this is the same pair but they are now checking out the nest box in the back yard. they have been in and out, all over it, wing waving like crazy but so far, not a single blade of grass. they're driving me crazy!!! i was really hoping to get just ONE nesting before the wrens showed up. when they get here, all bets are off...i am closing up the boxes. no matter what i did, last year i lost every single nesting to wrens!
Ninapearl
Original Author
14 years ago
she is finally building! from the looks of everything she has carried into the nest box (including some goat fur!), she'll be done in no time. :D