Great pics, All! Claire, I am happy to hear that the Butter Buns have returned to Plymouth! Mine are enjoying the suet but I still seem to have only two. I am also seeing what I think my be a Pine Warbler. I have seen them before but always closer to the end of the PFW season, closer to spring. I have not been able to get a good picture of it yet but I am trying. Oh...I did see a brown creeper yesterday, the first in two years! I was so excited, just wish it had been a count day... Has anyone noticed what time the birds leave your feeders in the afternoon? Right now, the end of January, I know that almost all activity at the feeders will come to an end by *about* 3:00. I will still see cardinals and some doves beyond that point, but not many chickadees, titmouse, finches, juncos, etc. We still have good light, the temps have not yet started to drop but the birds are gone. Have they had enough, are they full? Is it just me? I also notice lots and lots of activity just before a storm. The birds will eat and eat and eat, but the next day there will be very little activity. Very interesting to see. Obviously, the birds are smarter than me. sooey

wrens are the smallest of the nesting birds you probably will get and they can squeeze into a 1 inch hole. The chickadees and nuthatches a inch 1/4 or 1 1/2 hole. you can compare the sizes of the birds you get but there is not a lot of size difference in wrens and chickadees. bluebirds would need a little bigger house. if you can compare nests from last year you could see if the nest would fit in the house. the hole guards are to keep woodpeckers or squirrels or others from enlargeing the holes. I have seen woodpeckers enlarge a hole and use the house. A lid from a tin can with a hole in the center is used and tacked on. and can be painted to match the bird house. I don't get the tits or redpoles or some of the small birds from back east. also each variety of birds make different nests some with twigs and others with straw or grass or woodpeckers often sawdust. The bluebirds we get like to use hay or straw and bits of string or yarn or the stringy bark from cedar or juniper trees. I know some people here hinge the lid or front of the birdhouse so they can open it. not only to clean but also if the wrong birds try to nest say a wren with twigs they remove the nest and hope to get a different bird before the egg laying begins. Just because the hole is bigger does not mean the wrens won't try to use it. They are mean little birds and will kill babys or destroy nests of other birds.

did you use duct tape to attach? COOL!!! will add one right now! I'll get the dimensions of where it needs to be.. BIG SIGH! Yes, here is the quote from sialis.. "Try a modified Noel guard: Suggestion from Bernie Daniel: When a Chickadee or bluebird is established (i.e., a nest or eggs) build a "vanity front porch" on the box for them. Cut an old 2 quart milk carton in half. Cut a 1.5' hole in the bottom. Trim back the sides to about 4" in depth (now you have created a 4" bowl with a hole the bottom.) Center the hole in the bottom of the former milk carton over the nestbox hole and tack it onto the door. You can cut the bottom of the "porch" off so it is easier to attach and so that the Chickadee has access to the wooden door -- but keep the sides and top in place. (Basically this is a just a plastic "Noel guard" with no bottom). This creates a vestibule that prevents the wren for seeing the chickadee fly into the hole. Thus, the wren has less interest in what the chickadee is doing. Daniel has never lost a nest to wrens since using this method. " on this page: http://www.sialis.org/wrens.htm about a third of the way down.

Anita, I have a similar situation in that my bluebirds are back for a second brood. The house wrens didn't bother the box during nest building (and the box had been empty for about a month and there were no sticks). Mama laid her 1st egg this morning and this evening, a house wren took out that egg and smashed it at the base of the box. I think that now I'd say "the rule is that there are NO RULES!" I've had house wrens attack several eggs or several chicks, never just one egg. As far as putting up a wren guard, the problem you have is that the house wren has been in the box. And where there is one house wren, there are usually more near by. The reasoning behind the general rule of putting the wren guard on the box when the 1st egg is laid is that the female is less likely to abandon the nest if she can't figure out the wren guard. It's also hard to say whether your female is 'with egg' and I'd hate to see her not be able to get into the box to lay her 1st egg, if that makes any sense. You could wait till it's afternoon and the bluebird hasn't laid an egg and put it on. If she can't figure it out, I'd take it off till the afternoon of the next day, etc. Good luck, Linda in NW GA...