Sounds like you really have some challenges. You have my sympathies! A tiny poked hole is more likely a house wren's thin sharp beak, sometimes taking them some distance away, or simply tossing them out. The house sparrow will toss the eggs out, but their finch-like beak would not as likely make a tiny poke hole. And the HOSP is more likely to stick around, harass, or even take over the cavity. "Do BB's destroy their own eggs" ... No "the nest possibly could have been flooded?" ... are there leaks that could be fixed? "Are the HOSP really sneaky" ... yes, but HOWR are sneakier ... "and resistant to the Sparrow Spooker?" ... yes, and house wrens will not be deterred by a sparrow spooker. House Wrens are even sneakier, faster and silent, leaving no evidence behind, only destroying eggs or young. You might hear them singing, but might never, ever see them! There are some links to sound files of house wren song and chatter on Bet's web pages, so you can learn to hear the unwelcome sounds of house wrens. Visit Bet's web page for more info. And by the way, the Carolina Wren is a very different bird, welcome almost anywhere; not a threat to other birds. BlueBars Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.sialis.org/index.html

My guess is they are cowbird eggs. Very gently remove the brown speckled eggs (as not to crack the bb eggs) they will hatch before the bluebird eggs do and will eventually take over the nest box and the baby blues probably will not survive. I get them in the poor chipping sparrows nest and the cowbird babies are bigger than the nest. The chipping sparrow eggs are thrown out of the nest by the baby cowbirds. Karen

Well these barn swallows have been re-furbishing this same nest on our porch year after year. There really is no other location on the porch or nearby that would be practical or safe for the swallows to nest. This southwestern corner is under the eaves above our steep staircase, high up and inaccessible to predators. I don't know for sure they are the *same* two swallows year after year, but there is only the one nest. Meanwhile Mrs Finch is sitting on the nest and occasionally perching on the edge to turn her eggs. I imagine Mr Finch takes over nest sitting duties, although I haven't witnessed the changing of the guards. I do see him sometimes land on the ledge and sometimes in the little crabapple tree nearby. It is totally strange to see the pair of barn swallows arriving at dusk to spend each night perched next to the nest. I wonder if one or both could be last year's barn swallow babies.

No babies as of yet--Poor little mom about drown today. almost 4 in. of rain in last 24 hours. Took out our electricity out at 3 this morning-Had the generator on and that went after about 3 hours and hubby still does not have it fixed and we had the warmest day of the summer today. Electricity is back on after 12 hour. Boy do I miss modern things. No water, no flushing, no air conditioning and you hate to open refrigerator cause you know it not holding it own and it was to hot to work outside. And on top of all of that it was my hubby's birthday and he was going to play with his remote control sailboat-another day I guess.