Eggs gone

[hhudson26]

Wondering what happened here and thought I’d check with the experts. One nest in our house had five eggs when I checked this past Sunday. When I did my nest checks on Wednesday there were no eggs. No evidence of shells anywhere in the cavity or on the ground. We have three other pair in the house with nests, one with two eggs, one with Five eggs, and the other with four hatchlings. I just wonder what happened to those other five eggs. The pair still go in, so I know they’re still here.

[C.C.Martins]

Were they the first laid in your houses? They may have been non viable and removed by the adults.

Do you have snake netting up? Its suspicious.
Tom

[hhudson26]

Thanks, Tom. No netting, and I’d wondered about a snake. But none of the other cavities showed any issues. But I still wonder about that.

First egg was 5/18, so the fifth egg was there on 5/22.

[brent]

Last year I had 3 very healthy chicks in a nest. Next nest check there was only one. I had no snake traps and no other nests were affected but I do believe it was a snake. Last year a snake breached my pole guard and netting to climb into a Bluebird nest. It took only one of 2 chicks. It was trapped on it’s way down. Not a single straw as out of place in that nest. Brent

[CAK]

Last year I had a puzzling incident. I’ll describe it…
I had an SY pair have 1 baby and 3 eggs go missing. I had done a nest check and had 1 very new baby and 3 eggs. 5 days later all eggs and the baby were missing. I don’t think it was a snake. No other signs of predation. I also had some other eggs go missing through the season. That year I ultimately had 3 successful pair (started with 1 pair the year prior) but had another 5 SY males that hung around all year. An usually high number of unpaired males for such a small colony. I’ve thought about it and have a theory that a jealous SY male was actually the culprit with the thought of disrupting the paired birds would give him a chance to pair. I have no proof, it’s only a theory. Do you have unpaired SY males around? Or has anyone else seen this type of disruptive behavior from unpaired SY males?

[flyin-lowe]

SY’s have been know to remove eggs. Once they hit the ground there are plenty of critters that could/would eat them and clean up the evidence.

[hhudson26]

Thanks, all, for the feedback. Hopefully, with the long weekend I'll be able to keep a better eye out.

[Martintown33]

Agree with above.. it does sound like either a snake or SY removal.. putting up snake netting would be a good idea. If it was a snake He will probably be back, when he gets hungry again….. and when you’re not looking..
Good luck
Rob

[daveh]

I bet it's a SY male. They are known to take eggs and babies out and dropped on ground. He's trying to start his family with that female and chase the ASY male away or sometimes it might be a SY male thats hooked up with her.

Dave

[birdman in buckhead]

My money would be on a snake due to no eggs in sight. I think SY would not take the eggs that far away....just my opinion.

It makes me think about something that happened a few years ago when 12 apples, days away from being ripe for picking, disappeared from the tree. No evidence at all of what took them. No leaves on the ground. No bits of apple anywhere. Nothing! I could only think someone took them, but that's really gutsy because the tree is in my backyard and there's a wooden fence.

[hhudson26]

I think it may be a sparrow. I’ve seen one come out of that cavity twice today. As soon as he sees me me he’s gone, so I’ve not had opportunity to shoot.

[Martintown33]

You have to hide somewhere, that the HOSP can’t see you, or it will be very difficult to get a shot on him. You know how skittish they are. I use a blind that sits under my patio, and I shoot from there. They never know what hit them..
Good luck!
Rob

[C.C.Martins]

Robs right,
Have to hide but don't let it see you hide, or game is up. That sparrow needs to be killed in the worst way....good luck getting it!
Tom

[Constant patrol]

I don't know of a successful PM colony in my area of Texas that does not have a good snake guard. I found this out the hard way!
So, please put up netting, large long ac duct, or electric fence. I have already found 2 snakes trying to get up PM poles this year.
They show up here almost every year when the PM start laying and hatching. They will wipe your colony out. Many people don't
believe they have rat snakes. But, one made a believer out of me, 20 foot up a round 2 inch metal pole. He ate every egg and chick
in multiple nests on that pole.