If the HOSP has been nestbuilding, they probably have sent the bluebirds elsewhere. Just be glad the bluebirds have escaped with their lives. HOSP can kill. Visit the link below for ideas and hints if you want to discourage or remove HOSP. Other bluebirds might move in later, if you can control the HOSP problem. If your HOSP problem is severe (too many), or you are not willing to control them, maybe you could host a smaller species (chickadees, wrens, etc.) by reducing the entrance hole so that HOSP cannot enter. Whatever you decide, please do not host HOSP intentionally. BlueBars Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.sialis.org/hosp.htm

Hi Tim! Congratulations!! How exciting it is to host Bluebirds. Never know how soon she will begin to lay after the nest is completed. I wouldn't think it would be too long though. Like the others said, keep a watch on the nest. Once the first egg is laid, she should lay one egg each morning until she is done laying. 4-6 eggs is usual. Once the last egg is laid, incubation usually begins. She will incubate for about 12-14 days, and then you will have hatchlings! Then, if all goes well, in about 14 days, they will fledge from the box.~~Angie

Kathy -- when I went back out, I decided that BOTH nests look like they are primarily twigs, though there certainly are some more grass-like pieces as well as a few small seedheads (maybe dried sedum?) in the second one (it's also not as deep). I pulled out the one that was clearly all twigs (had a very deep "cup" in the middle but no eggs), but I left the other because I just wasn't sure. Here are the two pictures: first is the all-twig one that I removed today (how well do I need to clean out the box? I think there are a few twigs on the floor since I didn't have a brush with me). The second is the other box. Just a note: these two boxes are fairly close together because last year we had tree swallows and I had read that tree swallows and bluebirds will "share" space if there are two boxes. Swallows won't let another swallow pair nest nearby but will leave the bluebirds if they want the other house. I think what I read (on Audubon site or somewhere) was to put the two boxes about 10-15 feet apart. I know that's not what you do if you want actual bluebirds to use them both, but we were hoping to keep a pair of bluebirds in the one if the swallows returned this year (those swallows are GORGEOUS birds, too!)

BlueBars, I nearly had a heart attack! First I found the dirty water in my dogs water bowl and then I found the paw prints! I took photos and my exterminator assured me they were raccoon paw prints! He lives in the country and shoots and traps coons all the time so I knew he'd know. My dog sleeps upstairs in bed with me so she never heard a thing and my hubby travels often and was out of town. The only thing that I hated was that he (HUBBY) didn't walk into the kitchen in the middle of the night to find that raccoon! LOL! That would have been the last straw with my obsessive bird feeding! First we had roof rats (yep, I was told to get rid of my back yard feeders) and then the raccoon! I find it amazing that the raccoon went through not only one dog door but two. He had to enter the screened in porch through one, then go through the next one into the kitchen! Ate the dog food, washed up in the water bowl and went right back out the way he came in! LOL! The dog doors are always closed off at night.... now!