Tamgirl, I'm not sure what you mean by a hatchery, but, no, I don't have one. I live on 5 1/2 acres of mostly wooded property, so there are host plants all over the place. My passionvines are mostly growing on the hurricane fence that surrounds my garden and on the wood picket fence around the front "yard". I've released 45-50 gulf frits this month, so I had decided to leave the cats on the vines. After seeing the wren pecking at the chrysalis, I've changed my mine, and now I'm bringing in eggs and hatchlings to raise in the cages on my covered porch like I did those I've already released. I guess you could call my cages my hatcheries. This is the first time I've seen a bird showing interest in eating a caterpillar or chrysalis, although I'm aware that the cuckoos come here to eat tent caterpillars, I just don't see them doing it. Out here in the woods, there are SO many insects - people who live in town can't imagine how thick they are here - and birds have all them to eat plus sunflower seeds, and the hummers feed at my hummingbird feeders. I guess that's why they don't need to bother caterpillars much, but maybe the wrens saw easy pickings and decided to partake! Sherry

Wrens are pretty bold in the bird world. They frequently build nests really close to human activity, so they seem to know what they're getting in for when the babies come. Maybe they instinctively know their little ones will be safer from predators when they live so close to humans. I had a Carolina Wren INSIST on building her nest in my newly potted hanging baskets this year and even though I took out the nesting material every single day before it really got built, they kept at it. They KNEW I was there, that I knew they were there, and that I kept tearing the nest up on a regular basis. They still wouldn't stop. That says a lot. I took down that basket and put up an empty, with a bedding of loose dead geranium roots, then put their nesting material on top of that, hoping they'd accept it. They did. They finished it out the way they wanted and now their hanging basket is the closest to the steps and to the front door. They seem perfectly happy with it. After watching them from my yard as I worked, after a couple of weeks, it seemed they had abandoned it. I never saw them again. One evening, just at dusk, I tilted the basket to peek inside and scared the mother off the nest. Again... not a peep for days. I had to practically camp out at my living room window to catch one of them. I finally am seeing them again, regularly, as the little ones are keeping them extremely busy. They're flying in with lunch and out with fecal sacs all day long, but you never see them if you're out there. I wouldn't worry about your activity near their nest, like cleaning away spider webs. You wouldn't believe all the rowdy things I've done on that front porch since they moved in. They probably will have one or two more clutches, though, before winter, so you may want to set up an alternative nesting site and see if they'll accept it, if you want to use your front door again.

Hi again, I've done some more reading about house wrens. I assumed this was a Carolina Wren because of the distinctive white stripe from the eye. But I just read that house wrens have a white eye circle. I caught a still image from today's video and now I'm really confused! Linda... Here is a link that might be useful: what kind of wren is this?

I like watching birds and don't like to see them hurt, but why pick on cats? It's their nature to hunt small animals. They've been doing it for over thousands of years. Aren't people more of threat to birds than cats anyway? With all the building that goes on, birds will probably become extinct one day. I live in what is supposed to be a rural area but it's like anytime a developer (or whoever) sees trees, they tear them down to build houses and stores. It's getting out of hand. My personal rule is that I don't interfere with nature. I would've left the nest alone. If birds are that stupid to build nests where predators can get to them then they deserve whatever they get. Around here dogs are the biggest threat to birds. Several of the neighborhood dogs have a bad habit of killing small animals. One of them even ate my father's rooster! The only birds my cat has killed is those annoying Blue Jays who were just asking for it. Those cocky things fly around teasing the cat so when one gets eaten I don't feel sorry for it. Stupid birds.