I live in a suburban type neighborhood but with houses on only one side of the street. Accross the street from me is a big (16 acre) open park and directly next to the park is another heavily wooded area which is a county nature preserve. My neighbors have the typical no garden landscape but here I have planted heavily in fruiting shrubs like viburnum, serviceberry, shrub dogwoods, Winterberry, blueberries, and many others that attract backyard songbirds. I have no bluebirds and no tree sparrows have ever come to my nestboxes although I do see them flying overhead. Although I have had the male wren building fake nests for 4 years, last year was the first year he found a mate and they fledged two broods. That year the chicadees were nesting less than 20 feet away from the wrens. They never bothered each other. This year the wren is nesting in the front yard in a slotbox house that is very near my blackberries. The chicadees are in the backyard in a box very near my old cherry tree. The nestboxes are not in sight of each other but really they are not that far from each other either as I do not have a huge yard. House wrens apprear to be rare here. It was years of me planting shrubs to make the yard more attractive to sonbirds before I ever saw a wren here. I know that this is not a polular opinion here on the bluebird forum but I really like the house wrens.

Cathy I am so sorry to hear about your Dees! I would be heartbroken too to loose them like that. We were excited when we had Dees nestbuilding and very dissappointed when they were run off but it is better than what you are going through. Hosting birds is so very nerve wracking, sad at times and so much joy at times too. I am playing the wren game here, they are now nest building it two different houses. I keep emptying sticks, they keep adding them. Luckily I guess we only have TRES nesting now in the seven other boxes and still one empty box as I guess they are better prepared for the wrens than the other birds are. They worry me sometimes though when it gets cooler like this weekend did, only the two incubating were anywhere to be seen, the other birds were missing in action, checked the nests yesterday afternoon and two other pairs have eggs (3 each) the eggs were ok but I know it doesn't take those wrens long to do their dirty work. Donna

Congratulations! The dees are my favorite nest box guest! I just love 'em. I will tell you that in my experience my dees are just as, if not more, tolerant of monitoring as my bluebirds are. I've been lucky enough to host them for the last 5 (maybe 6?) years and they seem to communicate with me more than any other bird in my yard. I have several dee stories over the years that tell me they know I'm there to help and would not harm them, their eggs, or their babies. Having said that, I've read many times that chickadees are not as tolerant of monitoring and might even abandon a nest that is monitored. Truth be, not nearly as much research has been put into nesting chickadees as nesting bluebirds. I never monitor unnecessarily but there have been times (like this season with my dees) when monitoring saved one little dees life. His/her foot was stuck on some of the nesting material and there was no way in the world he would have been able to fledge (this, btw, was day 22!!!! Way past time to fledge) had I not removed him, the nest, and soaked the foot that was stuck to something in the nest. I returned him, nest and all, and he fledged with in an hour. I have no doubts that the adults knew I was helping him and were happy that I checked. His siblings had likely fledged 3 to 4 days before him. My Carolina Dees usually are on a similar schedule as the bluebirds and Brown Headed Nuthatches, the other species that has nested in my boxes. They usually hatch on about the 13th day and usually fledge on the 18th or 19th day. I think only the female incubates.

Since this nest was accidentally interrupted, it's very possible they'll nest again. I'd get the box cleaned out a.s.a.p. and be sure to bag that nest and dispose of it just in case the bee (probably a carpenter bee) has laid eggs in the moss. Carpenter bees are attracted to moss. I've had a problem with one going in my dee box that had eggs but I was able to stand guard all day (no joke) with a fly swatter and the bee finally gave up. I'm sorry that happened but it was an accident and you were trying to help. Had the bee remained, she would have abandoned the eggs (or even babies had that been the case).