Sorry I haven't been here. I was just so worn out after hanging in with the bluebird pair when Mama incubated 5 eggs for 22 days. They went away & I saw them only when I called them and put out mealies. Last week they came back and Mama started renewing the nest. This morning she laid her first egg. This is a box with a nest cam in it.

I record the video for all the daylight hours. Right before 5pm, I saw a movement in the box & realized that the egg was gone! I went back to the video & saw the house wren take the egg out and smash it

on the ground. The facts:

- After the bluebirds left that box (5 eggs, none hatched after 22 days), no sticks were put in it.

- When the blues were competing with titmice for the box, I put up a nest box again with a video camera and in about the same place in the yard but 12 ft or so away from the

bluebird one. I'll call this new one Box 2.

- In the month that the bluebirds were gone, the house wrens did not do anything with either box (no sticks, the could have walked all over and gone in the BB box). It wasn't until last week that I found sticks in Box 2. I took out thedummy nests and he continued putting in a new ones.

- again, the house wren did not show ANY interest in the bluebird box at least as evidenced by lack of sticks.

- In the past, I have had these nasty birds attack a full nest of eggs and the

full nest of chicks but NEVER just one egg!!!!!!!!

- For the last week when it was obvious that the bluebirds wanted the same nest box, Daddy Blue has been chasing the wren or wrens all over the place so it

couldn't add any more stick to the box it staked out.

Bottom line: as far as 'typical house wren behavior', the wrens here don't follow it, haven't followed it for several years. Neighbors have been cutting down trees & habitat so there's a housing shortage. Even with the housing shortage, Mama Blue was able to lay 5 eggs in the spring and incubate them for 22 days with no house wren interference (until the 22nd day when Daddy Blue had

given up. So forget the 'rules' about how close the box is to shrubs, brush,etc. These wrens have been coming out into the open for the past few years.

I wasn't able to put the wren guard on the box today because of the rainy weather. Again, I was planning on putting it on after egg 2 (tomorrow's weather forecast calls for sun during the day so I can attach the guard). personally, I don't think it'll help. I'm sure the house wrens have seen the hole in that box so no wren guard will help.

I am angry, sad, stunned! Maybe -I- let my guard down since the blues were able to be safe in the Spring.

Mama hasn't gone in the box since the egg got smashed but the damned house wren was...and on top of it and all around it. I have no idea where the bluebirds are.

So, is a wren guard even going to help?? Obviously at least one wren knows its way around this box, both boxes actually.

Some of you heard me several times after the house wren attacks here over the years say that I was giving up, ripping out the nest boxes. And I had some of you tell me to thinking positively, to not give up. As it was, I closed an additional box to chickadees to keep the house wrens from nesting here or attacking the dees.

Any words of wisdom now??? I can't imagine that there is any where the blues can go in my area where they won't be run out by the house wrens.

Sick and angry in Acworth, GA, Linda...