The three eggs are still there, and mom and dad have been busy at work. They're eating up the dried mealworms, too. I haven't seen any house wrens, but I'm not great at picking them out, either. I just went to my Sibley book, and it says that they are at edges of woods and overgrown gardens, we really don't fit that bill. No woods, and not much of a garden. This neighborhood was corn fields until 2006 and they scraped off all of the good soil and left the clay. Two neighborhoods side by side, same outcome. Any trees here are under 7 years old. I've put in bushes in the last 2 years, all are still quite small. I do have a carolina wren that nests every year in the propane tank, about 15 feet from the bluebird feeder. I've left that nest alone, but found it on the ground after the propane guy came about a month ago. I don't know if the wren will rebuild or not, I hope so. That's a funny bird, when we sit on the back porch it'll jump around the porch just out of eyesight and peek over to look at us as it goes around. Like it thinks we don't see it!! Would a carolina wren disturb it? My daughter just started taking lessons at that horse farm, I was actually shocked when I heard and then saw those HOSP. They were only there that one time, but they were there. We are quite rural, and close to the bay with a lot of swamp around. I never feed birdseed beyond the winter time and it is always BOSS or safflower seeds, never millet and that filler crap that those HOSP seem to love. I really hope I never see one of those here!! I have a killdeer nesting somewhere way in the backyard, I haven't gotten too close, I got a warning last time I walked back there, and my purple martins are back, too :) Each of the plots in the neighborhood are an acre, and it is only about 40% built, the builders left after the market crashed. The empty plots are regularly mowed, lots of empty fields around here. Christy

It sounds like something may have happened to your female. If you know for a fact that she is gone, I would remove the nest. If a new female comes along she will want to build her own nest. As far as the egg being missing, hard to say, if you have the male blues and a new female around it could have been one of them too. Hopefully not a wren! I doubt it was a HOSP as they would have destroyed all the eggs. Definately add baffles to those boxes and if you do get another Blue nest as soon as that first egg is laid put up a sparrow spooker to keep them safe from the HOSP. Good luck! Donna Here is a link that might be useful: sparrow spooker

If it wasn't baffled and something was able to push it down the pole...it wasn't mounted properly. A raccoon that finds a meal inside a nestbox will always check out nestboxes it finds from then on...they don't forget. If she wants to have another successful nesting ever...she needs to baffle that pole and the baffle would need to be big enough around to wobble sufficiently. Not sure what size pvc she used to mount the box on. All my boxes are mounted on conduit ranging from 1/2" to 2" in thickness. They are all mounted using two one-hole straps made for conduit. I could sit on top of the box and it wouldn't slide down the pole. Hopefully she can get her setup corrected so she can safely offer nestboxes for the blues. Donna

Why would you want to let it survive just so it could go on to do the same thing in another birds nest? I would throw it out but you do what you want. Waiting for hatching could still mean death to the others if you don't see that it has hatched right away, it will always get the food whereas the others won't and will die. I am sure you will get other advice but I guess you can do what you want to do. Donna