I have almost the same thing on one of my trails now,To give you some backround,Box"A" was up ,dees moved in and layed eggs,Then I saw a Tree swallow checking the box,so I put up Box "B" 10-15 feet away for the Tree Swallow knowing that they will nest in a paired box.Well the Tree Swallow does not show up again.The dees eggs hatch,5 nestlings.We get some wind a rain for a few days after.I monitor the dees box,only 3 nestlings,not sure what happened(bad weather or Wren) I let things be.2-3 days later only 2 chicks.About 1 week later I see a House Wren on Box "B" singing,adding sticks,I remove sticks every day for 4-5 days.The whole time the dees are defending Box "A" very good.Well today was fledge day for the dees.I go monitor the boxes from a distance,I see dees and House Wren hanging around,As I look closer I see a Tree Swallow peeking out of Box "B" and he is not budging.The Wrens are going nuts.A few hours later ,I again monitor from a distance,I do not see the dees ,today is day 16 (Fledged) for them.Now the the Wren have moved over to Box "A".The Tree Swallows remained in the entrance of Box"B" for the rest of the day,only leaving for very short times.So,Should I continue to deter the wrens,or should I expect these two to get along OK since the boxes are so close. Matt

Lisa, I thought that I read on this forum that some birds are more sensitive to disturbances than others. All I know about nest-box monitoring I learn from this forum. I respect and appreciate the efforts (and results!) of bluebird landlords, who reestablished EABBs in the eastern US. I do question, personally, the monitoring of other songbirds whose populations are not in trouble; my concern, also, is that some people, way less knowledgeable than the pros here, will think that they can and should monitor all nests, including cup nests. On the BWF, someone took a picture of almost fledged 'dees. I worry about flushing out chicks that age. Not that anyone knowledgeable on this forum would do it, but you all know your stuff. Many people glean information from forums instead of researching, and cannot keep their hands out of nests. Not that I am "scolding" anyone; it's just what I think of, as a visitor, when I come here. Not everyone knows there stuff. But I guess we can't help that. My instincts and background urge me to leave nests alone (except EABBs), because unknowingly, we create more trouble than help with birds that are doing well already, and need the experience of nesting failures to get them right in other tries. Although Janie's save is impossible to argue with!! But Janie, your gut (sorry for the metaphor) is greater than most other's : ) Which nest boxes then are you supposed to not check? Which species was I thinking of? Thanks!

Nests are so low and the babies so tiny, can't see how they can peek. I'm currently watching a dee house with 5 babies-one is a very tiny runt. With mama and papa dee calling them out, I'm sure when their fledge day comes, they will just shoot out of the box. This is a second dee pair. The first nest fledged 5 and I totally missed it but the woods sure are full of dee deeing. Linda

That is always an amazing sight! I saw chickadees fledging a few years ago by chance and I was hooked since then. BTW, you may want to put a metal hole reducer to 1-1/8". I have a friend whose nest box had chickadee nestlings and they were attacked by a house sparrow. She was heartbroken.