I have one house that's being used this year. Same one as last year. The new houses I built and hung last fall have no residents. I've read they are territorial and will reuse the same nesting box for several years. I was hoping to have a few pairs, but I'll take the one. I tried to get photos inside the house yesterday, but mama bird wasn't too eager to let that happen. And I didn't want to scare her away. I've been seeing other broken eggs laying around the yard. They're tiny and white. I'm thinking the squirrels are the cause.

I live in a suburban type neighborhood but with houses on only one side of the street. Accross the street from me is a big (16 acre) open park and directly next to the park is another heavily wooded area which is a county nature preserve. My neighbors have the typical no garden landscape but here I have planted heavily in fruiting shrubs like viburnum, serviceberry, shrub dogwoods, Winterberry, blueberries, and many others that attract backyard songbirds. I have no bluebirds and no tree sparrows have ever come to my nestboxes although I do see them flying overhead. Although I have had the male wren building fake nests for 4 years, last year was the first year he found a mate and they fledged two broods. That year the chicadees were nesting less than 20 feet away from the wrens. They never bothered each other. This year the wren is nesting in the front yard in a slotbox house that is very near my blackberries. The chicadees are in the backyard in a box very near my old cherry tree. The nestboxes are not in sight of each other but really they are not that far from each other either as I do not have a huge yard. House wrens apprear to be rare here. It was years of me planting shrubs to make the yard more attractive to sonbirds before I ever saw a wren here. I know that this is not a polular opinion here on the bluebird forum but I really like the house wrens.

Cathy I am so sorry to hear about your Dees! I would be heartbroken too to loose them like that. We were excited when we had Dees nestbuilding and very dissappointed when they were run off but it is better than what you are going through. Hosting birds is so very nerve wracking, sad at times and so much joy at times too. I am playing the wren game here, they are now nest building it two different houses. I keep emptying sticks, they keep adding them. Luckily I guess we only have TRES nesting now in the seven other boxes and still one empty box as I guess they are better prepared for the wrens than the other birds are. They worry me sometimes though when it gets cooler like this weekend did, only the two incubating were anywhere to be seen, the other birds were missing in action, checked the nests yesterday afternoon and two other pairs have eggs (3 each) the eggs were ok but I know it doesn't take those wrens long to do their dirty work. Donna

Perhaps you could put up a second house somewhere near just like the first and give them an alternative. I've had good luck with this when I get birds battling over a box. Of course that's a slippery slope and why I have so many bird houses. Maybe you shouldn't listen to me.