All my eggs, gone.

[BirdBrain]

I only have one pair of PUMAs, in their third season with me.

My first egg had appeared Tuesday. There was another new one every day through Friday's nest check, when there were a total of four. She laid five last season so when I checked the nest at 1 p.m. on Saturday, I was expecting to find that many again. But there was only one.

Naturally this distressed me so I made a point of spending the remaining afternoon doing yardwork and generally keeping an eye on the nest. Around 5 in the evening, I was preparing to post the story here and ask what I might substitute for anti-snake netting (to protect the lone remaining egg), since I obviously wasn't going to find anyplace that sells it before Monday morning (even though I'm not convinced this was the work of a snake). I went to make one last nest check before coming in the house and the nest was empty. M-T. Something had made off with the single remaining egg, right under my nose. Between 1 and 5 in the afternoon.

At that point I started sleuthing and found bits of two broken eggs (or maybe just one, in two halves) right beneath the house. And another more nearly complete white PUMA-sized egg shell about 20 paces toward the house, smashed and its contents mostly gone. But there was no sign of the culprit. I had mowed earlier in the day and might have destroyed other evidence, if there was any.



I had thought the nest they built this year would be invulnerable, a PUMA D-I-Y SREH. There's more mud than sticks. I wondered how even they could manage to get in.

I know this bit of land too well, I've been tending it too long, and a snake -- any snake -- would be a true rarity. Plus, the bird house pole is white, which would have made any native snake pretty conspicuous as it crawled up it between the hours of 1 and 5 in the afternoon.

Then again, a coon or possum is even less likely, particularly since the PUMA's nest entrance is so nearly walled off, and the house's front wall had not been opened. And I'm pretty certain no four-legged critter could have sauntered across the yard that afternoon, unseen by me or my hounds.

I am mystified. And heartsunk. The only good bit of news is the birds haven't yet fled the nest, so I hold out hope they could return again next year. Regardless of what got their eggs, regardless of how "safe" I might be convinced this spot is, there's a predator guard in my pole's future.

[John Miller]

well...others may know more. sparrows usually pip a hole in eggs, but don't break. May be a sub adult male martin...watch closely. Snakes may go up the pole at night if temps are warm, but would think a little cool recent nights? Not sure. Regardless, always important to have good pole guards.

[Mr. K.]

Around the beginning of May I had a nesting pair with two eggs. Sparrows took the eggs and pecked a hole in them and ate the contents. They then took over that nest. I found the eggs unbroken except for the hole in them. As of the middle of May I now have two more nesting pair but no eggs yet. Jesse

[MamaBruff]

I'm so sorry, and hope you figure out the problem right away. (HOSP or House Wren can be verrry sneaky...)
Mary

[birdbrat]

I'm no expert, but it sounds to me like you may have a wren sneaking about. Have you heard one, or seen any nests nearby?

[Louise Chambers]

Your martins have time to renest and hopefully that's just what they'll do. Pole guard is a must, really - and keep a watch on, as you are doing, for starlings or house sparrows. If you think a wren is the problem, you ought to see/hear it around - put up a box for it on opposite end of your property to keep it away from martins.

[BirdBrain]

I figure it had to be a bird of some sort because I can't imagine anything that couldn't fly getting in and out in broad daylight without calling attention to itself.

I'm thinking an SA male is a possibility because a nearby PUMA landlord took down his three houses (+12 gourds) when he moved out and the new occupant only put one back house up. So the housing situation in this neighborhood is unsettled. And the sound of a strange PUMA doesn't much raise any suspicion. I have been seeing other males about on occasion, usually in flight, although I never got good enough a look to guess at their age.

birdbrat, I haven't noticed any wrens but I'm afraid I don't know their call. I'll have to edjumicate myself.

I've seen very few HOSPs since the PUMA's nest-building began. I have a Universal Sparrow Trap on the opposite side of the house from the apartment my pair inhabit, but it hasn't caught a thing in maybe a month.

Starlings have been scarce, too, mostly an odd one or two mixed in with the grackles feeding on the ground, but very few near the house. But I did see three sitting perched malevolently on the house this morning. Coincidence? I dunno.

I'd been seeing so few of the usual threats, I was convinced this would be a golden year for my PUMAs. Now this.

Now it looks like they're disassembling the nest. They'd built a sort of wall near the door in three distinct layers, each a layer of sticks capped with mud. Now the mud cap that was on the uppermost layer is gone, and there are several sticks half-in and half-out of the door, as if they're breaking it down to move it elsewhere. At least that's what I'm hoping is going on. I'd sooner lose my only tenants than have them pass the season with no offspring to show for it.

[BirdBrain]

Bittersweet news. I have a neighbor who has had a PUMA house in the back yard since they moved in, but they have never done any maintenance on it. Which is a shame, really, because it's in the middle of a wide-open lot and there isn't a taller tree for a good 100 feet in any direction. AFAIK, they never have had any PUMAs tenants. All I ever have seen visiting the house was starlings and HOSPs.

That is, until after my PUMAs deserted their house. A week or so later, I noticed a pair of mature PUMAs paying frequent attention to the neighbor's house. Which struck me odd, because I'd have thought it was too late in the season for mature birds to be arriving. And then they took up residence.

Last week, there was a great deal of PUMA noise surrounding the neighbor's house so I snuck over and had a look. The adults fled at my approach but I could see at least three well-developed chicks sticking their heads out of their chamber. They were so big, I took them to be within days of fledging.

I've seen the adult birds coming and going from the house several times this week but the noise level is greatly reduced, so I think the chicks fledged.

Put it all together and I think my PUMAs just moved into the neighbor's house -- which, all things considered, is a more suitably-situated house -- built a new nest, laid more eggs and successfully fledged a new generation.

PUMAs have such a reputation for being finicky, I wouldn't have believed it. So I'm happy for their new family, but I'm saddened that their "nest fidelity" now probably is invested in a different house.

[MamaBruff]

Sorry for your loss but glad the martins were able to fledge successfully. Hopefully you can make your site more "suitable" for next year!