sounds like you had a house wren. some people choose to discourage them because they can be aggressive towards other bird eggs sometimes, but i myself have never had that problem. i actually like having them around.

and yes, they do enjoy filling nesting cavities with lots, and lots, and lots of sticks. :)

Yes House Wrens. They build Dummy Nests to keep other birds from nesting in their teritory. You wont have Blues if you don't take action. Wrens are native birds so you can not hurt them or their REAL nests (one that has a soft nest cup in the middle). Wrens will pirce the BB eggs and toss out the hatchlings, they can be a REAL problem. You can find out how to keep the Blues, Dees,TRES, TUTIs etc. safe from them at www.sialis.org It's as simple as a piece of waxed cardboard!

A small bird (sparrow or finch) built a nest in a holly bush behind my house. The nest had four light blue eggs.
Didn't bother to look at it for a couple of weeks then checked it. Apparently, young fleged but to my surprise, not the slightest trace of the nest remained and no debris nearby. Do some birds have reason to disasemble and remove the old nest completely?