Bird Watching: Bluebird Nest Destroyed, 1 by bjf826

bjf826 wrote:
Morning all. Thanks for your kind words. It was such a shock to go in and find the four babies gone. This was the first clutch I had started the Cornell Nestwatch recording of and to note the arrival of each little blue egg, then wait through the incubating... then see that all the eggs hatched into live young. Really tugs on the old heartstrings. :(
Dave, the reason I suspected a snake was because we had seen Mom remove a very small - 6" approx - black snake from the nest last year in between clutches. There are several feral cats around here, though, and we've had them climb the fence to come into the yard because of the bird feeders and subsequent increased population of birds.
The first pic shows the location of the house on the fence... bad choice on our part. A pole with a baffle will need to be bought. Next decision will be where to place it and how high to mount it. Dave, thanks for that link. The Sialis website is a treasure chest full of information! The entrance opening is 1 1/2" diameter; second pic is a closeup of the house.
Iris, we do have one single wren that visits the yard but it has never - so far as we have seen - visited the area of the nest. Daddy Bluebird even chases it away when it comes to the peach tree feeders and they are a good 75' away from the nest. We've never seen Chipmunks here, thank goodness. We go through enough seed and mealworms as it is!!
I went out a dawn this morning and found Dad sitting in his usual "guard" location at the top of the apple tree but Mom was nowhere to be seen. Dave, you will have d-mail shortly.
Thanks again, everyone for your kind words.
Barb