Well I was so busy I was unable to visit the forums for responses. Kendra I haven't heard or seen HOWR in the vicinity. To add to that, the blues and swallows laying are around 100 yards apart. This is my neighborhood backyard site that has 2 pairs spaced 20 ft between boxes and about 100 or so yards apart. Nor have I found any destroyed eggs. I had HOWR problems in the past and that's why I moved the boxes...they are in my neighbor's massive field. Okay...The TRES and Blues didn't lay any more eggs! The TRES still have just TWO and they don't appear to be incubating. the other TRES nest that has 4 eggs are still unhatched (presumably gone bad due to upper 40 degree weather a few days ago) Another strange thing...at site #2 the swallows layed just 3 eggs and not sure if THEY are even incubating! What it the world is wrong with my birds this year?! By the way, I now think I've lost 3 female bluebirds already this year! If I lose one more I will top last year's record! Which was 3 in one season! I saw the male bluebird perched on the sparrow spooker in the Am and the powerlines in the PM. No sign of Mrs. Blue. Really wish I knew. This is the STRANGEST nesting season ever! My bluebirds can't even manage to complete a clutch! I might not see nestlings this year if this keeps up:( Mr. Blue might decide to leave:(..........why?!

I had two nesting last year that were successful so I think the box is mounted fine. I guess maybe something could have spooked them. I didn't see anything funny with the box. But maybe it's the heat. I kthink they would have returned today if everything was ok.

Love that Beatles song! I can't believe I never heard it before I was up until 4:45 am last night - painting (a room) and then winding down watching the Daily Show. I didn't dare go online or I would have been up even later! I had fully leaded coffee at around 3 pm yesterday and I think that was my downfall. I used to be able to drink coffee in the evening and still sleep. Then I couldn't, but I can still have it in the late afternoon. But as I've gotten older I find that I have to shift back my deadline for drinking coffee otherwise it keeps me awake. My current rule is no coffee after 4 pm, but it is starting to look like it should be 3. I can however drink tea around teatime (5 pm) and not be kept awake, but no tea after 7.

I have a bluebird house that I put out last spring - it was occupied by a pair of blues almost immediately. I named them Burt and Bertha. They had 3 different clutches of eggs, but only the last clutch hatched. They had 4 beautiful babies and stayed around the house all summer and fall. Over the winter, a pair of house sparrows showed up. There were battles on and off for the house, but the bluebirds seemed to always chase the sparrows away. I haven't seen the sparrows in several weeks, but I've been checking the house and so far it is empty. Nothing is nesting in it at all. I was really hoping Burt and Bertha would use it again this season. I still see them in the yard every day and sometimes they come and sit on the house and go inside here and there. But... so far, no nest. I'm so sad! Is there anything I can do to attract them back into the house? My guess is they got tired of the HOSP battle and decided to build a nest somewhere else. I know it may be a little early yet, but this time last year they had a nest with 5 eggs in it already.