Hi,

As I mentioned in previous messages, the house wrens made their appearance a few weeks ago. I took the other 2 nest boxes out of commission (I've tried the 'let them make dummy nests; take out dummy nests to keep 'em busy' and that didn't work).

What has worked is Daddy Blue. Mama's been incubating eggs for 18 days and each day I see him chasing HOWRs. OK, the house and bluebird box are in the front 1/3 of our acre. We have woods/brush in the back 2/3 where there are NO nest boxes. I doubt that there are any natural cavities but I guess there could be. I know that the neighbors on each side (we all have an acre or thereabouts) do NOT have nest boxes out. As for who is behind me, they have a tall privacy fence so I can't see.

Everytime I put mealies out for the blues (never seen the HOWRs eating them), I hear the HOWRs chattering all around me!!! What do they do, recognize me and send a signal to the others "She's here, circle the wagons [or whatever HOWRs would do]" LOL! This morning especially they were VERY loud and Daddy was really nervous, wings twitching, etc. He's been busy. I'm twitchy, too!

Seriously, let's assume that there's a HOWR nest somewhere, how far a territory do they protect??

Bluebird blessings, Linda...NW GA