I am from Rhode Island Trail is in northern RI Bluebirds are not hardy there flocks crash will high snow levels. And cold. Mild seasons they expand there local numbers. When there found dead in spring means there food supply was low and they expired. You will also see some dead threw out spring after a late cold snap the birds will just end up missing but we know it was the late cold snap. Many are weaken from the trip north once they show up and winter returns large numbers perish. It weeds out the old and sick. Ray

Mimi, the snake trap is fine as long as you monitor it. If a snake becomes trapped, you must be nearby to release it or it can become entangled and die. Instead, I recommend that you baffle your nestboxes--I use the stovepipe baffle on all 35+ nestboxes that I monitor and I have never lost an egg, nestling or adult bird to a climbing predator. The stovepipe I use is 6" in diameter and 24" long . . . others use 8" diameter stovepipe. It is important to install the baffles so that they wobble as this keeps climbing predators such as raccoons from being able to shimmy up to the nestbox. I also recommend using the hardware cloth (as shown on the link below) as this entices snakes to climb inside the baffle towards daylight. Since they cannot get through the hardware cloth, they become frustrated and leave. I know for certain that there are snakes at all my nestbox locations, including the ones here at the house, and I also know that these baffles work and are doing their job! Kathy Here is a link that might be useful: Predator Baffles

Hi Kathleen- I'll address you since the other posts are old. I am so very sorry that you have experienced this. Did you read what the responses were to the older post of one that lost a bluebird on the nest? I would just repeat everything that they said. If absolutely no sign of injury, I would suspect lawn pesticides, but considering what happened to the 1st person that posted & didn't see signs of injury on her bluebird, it did turn out to be house sparrows. I would highly suspect this. Do you think the female is dead too? If so, again I would be suspicious of HOSP. Answering your question, the male would not starve himself, nor is he able to brood eggs. If the female died too, the eggs wouldn't have hatched because the female is the one to incubate the eggs. She has a brooding patch on her lower abdomen that the male doesn't have. If she is alive, she may not be returning to nest because of the failed nest situation, especially if there was foul play. Make sure you know that she is not returning before removing the nest & eggs. If she is alive, she will probably try to find a new mate. Without repeating too much, make sure your birdhouse is on a pole with a baffle & put a sparrow spooker up after the 1st egg. If you know for sure that the nest has been abandoned & you don't get any activity, you may want to change the location of the box (birdhouse). If you immediately get a house sparrow setting up shop, then you'll know that was most likely the culprit. Again, if female is not returning, now would be the time to get a Van Ert trap for your house to trap the male & female HOSP. If you do, make sure you are monitoring every hour if possible so you don't trap a native bird. They can die in there if without food for too long. One of the previous posts left a website for the Van Ert trap. Again, the previous posts left great advice for your situation. This site is not as active as it used to be for bluebirders, so you may want to post to bluebirdnut.com. Lots of bluebird experts are on that site like this one used to have. That's where I go whenever I need advice. BTW, I lived in Atlanta for ten years (live in AL now). Very sorry to hear about your bluebird tragedy. Hope you'll have another pair come for a future nesting, but definitely get that sparrow spooker!

Meant to tell you that I love Fairhope- such a charming little town. I would think that if the female isn't going in to lay anymore eggs or to incubate them, that they're not going to move forward at that location for right now. Are you sure she's not going in there? It could be that the Chickadees are hesitant to move forward wondering if the bluebirds are going to come back. If you know that the bluebirds aren't entering the box, my sense would be to remove the eggs & nest. If you don't have any continued activity or new activity, I would definitely get the box out of the tree & on that pole you purchased. I guess you could wait until your pole & baffle arrive- & if no changes, remove material & put the box on the pole with baffle at least 15 feet from tree, but close to it since it's a location they seem to like. I would put any houses that you have on a pole. You could actually move the baffle around according to where you have activity. The golf course side could be another desired location, since it sounds like it may be more open, which is what bluebirds seem to like. How awesome would that be if you had Chickadees in one location & bluebirds in another! As far as the snake repellant, maybe it is ok if it's herbal (& powder at that). I thought that what I sprayed last year should be harmless, but 2 of the fledgelings couldn't yet fly, so they were hopping around in my courtyard for 2-3 days until they died. They were so adorable! I actually took the last one to a rehabber when I realized that it seemed stressed & wasn't accepting food from the parents. As soon as we pulled up to the location, the baby died. It took me about a month to get over losing them. One died in the box, too. Again, wondered if was due to the spray that I used. My neighbor saw the one that flew out into my front yard a few days after it fledged & it seemed fine. Just not going to chance using that spray again during nesting season. You're right though- it's so hard to know exactly what to do because all we want to do is help them, not harm them. If you get a chance, would love to hear what happens. Again, great experts on bluebird nut.com. Nicole