3 of my 5 Martin eggs (of my only pair, unfortunately) went missing, I am guessing it was a snake... but seems odd it left 2. The ones that were left, the martins covered with leaves- and then shortly thereafter (as both were SY) they abandoned the nest and then left my site completely. Since that was my only pair this year, that ended the season for me on a sad note. I've not seen any snakes around here, so that is odd- but I can't imagine what else it could be where there is no residue or anything at all. I don't have a snake guard on this pole, so I will add one next year for sure. But I want to make sure I am solving the actual problem- could it have been anything else? I have SREH tunnels.
I've read a lot of SY's can be finicky and abandon nests, so that isn't super surprising given that their nest was attacked. So hopefully they will come back next year and try again as ASYs!
3 of 5 Eggs Gone - Snake?
It most certainly could have been a snake. Especially with the parent birds abandoning the nest. I had a Bluebird nest that had 2 chicks. Despite having a snake trap, a small snake breached it and took only one baby. The snake got tangled in the trap on its way down. The parent birds called for the remaining chick to leave. It did. Even though it couldn’t fly it hopped away and the parents did not return. The fledgling was close to flying age and I can only assume the parents continued to feed it until it was able to fly. I hope so any way.
Brent