Bluebird Trail, Week Two (Part 2)

On Friday night I poured my heart out about our first encounter with an aggressive house sparrow at a nest box, and I shared our delight at discovering our first clutch of bluebird eggs at one of the boxes we monitor. Today I finished visiting the rest of the boxes we've taken on. Here's the update:

Nest at box 9 on Saturday

1. Empty
2. This is the nest box where the house sparrow killed the chickadee. We have been setting a trap for the house sparrow but have had no luck.
3. Partial nest 
4. Nest about half built
5. Complete bluebird nest with feathers lining the grass nest -- looks ready for eggs
6. Partial nest 
7. Partial nest 
8. A few strands of grass
9. Bluebird nest with five eggs as of yesterday (see photo). She should be done or almost done now, and incubation will start. That takes close to two weeks before chicks hatch.
10. Bluebird nest, no eggs. We are relieved that this female apparently decided to lay all her eggs in #9 rather than splitting them between nests built in both #9 and 10.
11. We are no longer monitoring boxes #11 and 12 -- someone else nearby has asked to watch those -- but for consistency with the numbers in our record book we'll keep the numbering the same.
12. See #11
13. Partial nest 
14. Last week we thought a tree swallow might be building the nest in this box but this week it appears to be a pretty complete bluebird nest and I spotted a bluebird on the wire nearby
15. Bluebird nest 75% complete
16. Bluebird nest with three eggs as of today  A bluebird flew from the area of the box as I drove up.
17. Newly assigned nest box as of this week, replacing #11-12. On Thursday this box contained a small amount of short clippings, possible moss, indicating maybe a chickadee.