Today I found an egg in that nest! It's 2cm long (20.5 mm). According to http://www.sialis.org/eggsizes.htm it could be a Carolina wren or House sparrow. It's larger than the wren and smaller than the sparrow. While investigating, a carolina wren was screaming at me from a near by bush, and it seemed to be very upset with me for being there. It may be his nest or he could have a nest near by. I installed spooker on bluebird house that on this yard. Just in case if this is house sprarrow nest. Babies pretty big in this box. (I wrote abot 4 babies earlier, but I was wrong about quantity) I can't stay on that yard for long to make sure they accepted it because have small baby with me right now. Do you think this is a good idea or I should take it down? This is the box Janie - birds lay one egg in day, and same, as you wrote it earlier, skip a day in egg laying. She starting incubation only after she will lay her last egg. All this time eggs stay cold - up to 10 days if she skipping days and lay 5 egg. I surprised that this is new for you.

We have helped the bluebirds for yrs providing them w/ boxes. We’ve noticed that younger birds will lay usually 3 eggs & older ones lay 4-5 eggs. This spring we had a pair lay 5 eggs & from past experience, probably because of the size of the box, that @ least one will either die from suffocation or from being @ the bottom too much & not get enough food. When we’ve had only 3 eggs, everyone was healthy. We chose to discard 2 of the five eggs so everyone would make it. Everything seemed to be going fine until one morning a coon must have tried getting into the box. The whole nest was packed tight into the opening. I pulled the nest out & found the new born babies in the bottom of the box. I tried repairing the nest & putting the babies back in, but I think they had been hurt too much when the coon was in there. We even have a predator guard on the entrance hole, but didn’t phase him. The parents seemed to try for a few days, but realized their babies were dead. I decided to take everything out & just leave the clean shavings in the bottom, hoping they’d start a new family. I always clean everthing out anyway after the babies have fled the nest. Well, it seemed like that’s what was going to happen. I saw the male & female on the top of the box seeming happy. We checked this morning thinking we’d find a new nest being built, but no. She laid 2 eggs in the bottom of the box on the sawdust. I’ve never seen this before & we’ve been doing this for 40 yrs.

How large is your berry bed? The best option would be to place a short (12 inches) wooden or brick barrier around the bed to keep the turtles out but you could easily step over. The turtles are not able to climb a slick upright surface. You will not find a repellent. The turtles could push aside a net fence, but would not have eaten through a fence. What you are describing is unusual behavior for box turtles. The box turtle is facing a losing battle of habitat loss and is protected in most of its range. Slow sexual maturity, small egg clutches, high hatchling mortality, and fast cars make survival a questionable end result. Consider sharing your berries. Are you sure that box turtles are your main culprit? They will eat berries, to be sure, but a whole patch? Box turtles are not herding animals. They are solitary except to breed. My guess is that birds or other creatures may also be taking a share, especially if you are missing raspberries: the box turtles could only eat those within a few inches of the ground.

Hi- I have what appears to be the same bluebird pair come back to nest in a different box in my yard this year. These two have always been together by coming to my feeder & when building their nest. However, I have seen him in the last few days, but not anywhere around her or the nest box. He'll come to my courtyard to get mealworms or drink from the bird bath, but then flies off somewhere else while she is either in the box or perched up in the tree where she can see the box. It's as if they broke up. I'm worried that she's being left alone to deal with the situation. He doesn't come around to feed her or attend to her at all & I never see him perched up in the tree nearby like he was before. I put up the sparrow spooker after the 2nd egg & I'm wondering if he doesn't like it as I didn't have it last year when they nested in the courtyard. I'm perplexed as to what is happening. Has anyone ever encountered this? Should I tie up the streamers on sparrow spooker or take it down to see if he returns? I'm just afraid that once the babies hatch, she'll be on her on. I keep thinking, "No, of course he'll be there with her, but why isn't he with her right now when he always has been?" Like I said, I saw him twice today, but completely ignoring her & the nesting site. Please help! Very concerned! Nicole