The three eggs are still there, and mom and dad have been busy at work. They're eating up the dried mealworms, too. I haven't seen any house wrens, but I'm not great at picking them out, either. I just went to my Sibley book, and it says that they are at edges of woods and overgrown gardens, we really don't fit that bill. No woods, and not much of a garden. This neighborhood was corn fields until 2006 and they scraped off all of the good soil and left the clay. Two neighborhoods side by side, same outcome. Any trees here are under 7 years old. I've put in bushes in the last 2 years, all are still quite small. I do have a carolina wren that nests every year in the propane tank, about 15 feet from the bluebird feeder. I've left that nest alone, but found it on the ground after the propane guy came about a month ago. I don't know if the wren will rebuild or not, I hope so. That's a funny bird, when we sit on the back porch it'll jump around the porch just out of eyesight and peek over to look at us as it goes around. Like it thinks we don't see it!! Would a carolina wren disturb it? My daughter just started taking lessons at that horse farm, I was actually shocked when I heard and then saw those HOSP. They were only there that one time, but they were there. We are quite rural, and close to the bay with a lot of swamp around. I never feed birdseed beyond the winter time and it is always BOSS or safflower seeds, never millet and that filler crap that those HOSP seem to love. I really hope I never see one of those here!! I have a killdeer nesting somewhere way in the backyard, I haven't gotten too close, I got a warning last time I walked back there, and my purple martins are back, too :) Each of the plots in the neighborhood are an acre, and it is only about 40% built, the builders left after the market crashed. The empty plots are regularly mowed, lots of empty fields around here. Christy

There are some birds that lay their eggs in another birds nest. The Cuckoo, Cowbird, Whyda, Honeyguide and Black-headed Duck come to mind. "These birds, called brood parasites, lay their eggs in another bird's nest and let the other bird parents feed and raise their chicks. The "egg abandoner" is then free to mate again and lay more eggs in another nest. The cuckoo is the best known brood parasite and an expert in the art of cruel deception. Its strategy involves stealth, surprise and speed. The mother removes one egg laid by the host mother, lays her own and flies off with the host egg in her bill. The whole process takes barely ten seconds. Cuckoos parasitize the nests of a large variety of bird species and carefully mimic the colour and pattern of their own eggs to match that of their hosts. Each female cuckoo specializes on one particular host species. How the cuckoo manages to lay eggs to imitate each host's eggs so accurately is one of nature's main mysteries."

I put out cat hair every Spring in a large suet cage (my sister collects it from brushing her long haired cats). It disappears in a few weeks. I've seen Titmice and Baltimore Orioles, and the little red squirrels take the fur.

If it sits on the grass to water and drain then sneaky snails could have snuck in within an hour. And caterpillars are laid as eggs on plants by flying insect adults. It does look like damage from one of these munchers though. Kind of a relief, I believe. Do you have lettuce or even potatoes? You can lay them on top of the media to try to attract snails then squish and flush them. Also, if you repotted it and havent had it long its entirely possible there were snail eggs on the roots and they hatched after you repotted. Some people spray roots with hydrogen peroxide to kill snails and their eggs but I'm not sure how a fern would handle such treatment.