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The Kitchen Table

On the other side of the yard, 3 pics

16 years ago

I didn't really want her nesting anywhere near my yard, but since she's a protected native species there wasn't anything I could do about it.

"She" is the common house wren. On the surface house wrens are entertaining, comical, little song birds. They're in constant motion and are great for keeping bugs and caterpillars off of the garden plants. These two are constantly working over my tomato plants, for which I'm thankful.

Their only bad habit is that they search for other birds' nests and then poke holes in all the eggs they can find. This hen got all the eggs from my robin's third nesting attempt.

It is legal to remove the house wren's nest twigs BEFORE any eggs are laid. I removed three of her nests (twigs only) in the back yard, but while I was busy doing that, they built this nest and had eggs in it before I could discover what they were up to.

Now I'm going to be the proud mama of five house wrens.

So far, she's left the Purple Martins alone, and the chickadees nested and left before the wren showed up. The tree swallows eggs have all hatched.

It's all good, and as long as she can keep her marauding confined to the side yard, we'll get along just fine.

Here's my pride-of-place Arkansas red cedar nest box hung on the neighbor's privacy fence.

The house wrens' idea of an ideal home.

I had to use a mirror to "see" up and over into the nest cup. I took this photo by wiggling the camera in top of the box and guesstimating the eggs' location.

A house wren gathering spider cocoons for her nest.

A robin egg attacked by a house wren.

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Comments (10)

glenda_al
16 years ago
Love your pictures. Keep on sharing
alisande
16 years ago
I had no idea that house wrens did that! How unfortunate. What is the purpose, do you know?

I've long been exceedingly fond of house wrens that nest in a hanging pottery bird house on my porch. Since I spend time reading on the porch, and since wrens have been nesting there for 35 years, they've gotten rather tame. The other day I took this picture of one in the middle of their unmistakable, incredibly loud trill.
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caroline94535
Original Author
16 years ago
Alisand...what a wonderful photo! Can you tell me what camera and lens you used. It's perfect!

The house wrens' natural instinct is to protect their food sources, their young, and their territory from other birds. That's why they search out and destroy any eggs they can find within a certain area. It's just the way they're programmed. They're not big enough to "fight" for territory and chase off competitors.

The Carolina wrens do not have this habit.

I agree with you; house wrens make perfect porch companions. I had them nesting in my front yard, next to my "reading tree" last season.

I'm trying to determine just how big one nesting pairs' territory is, so I'll know where to let them nest next season.

I've been juggling tree swallows, chickadees, robins, nuthatches, and, of course, my beloved Purple Martins all season long. Now if I could only get Blue Birds in the mix I'd be in Heaven.

I do love the little wrens; they're the comics of the yard (at least not when they're not being the axe murderers.) Still, I try to bother them just enough that they move across the street. This year they won the battle for my side yard. As always, I gave in graciously, and "legally."
lilliepad
16 years ago
Her house is about as messy as mine!LOL
Loved the pictures.
jannie
16 years ago
How sweet! I had a birds nest in my kitchen fan, I cleaned it out and the birds went elsewhere. I have a bird house in a tree in the back but it seems unoccupied.. I have been putting out water for the birds every day. They really like it!
ronf_gw
16 years ago
Great photos.

Ron
alisande
16 years ago
Thanks, Caroline! The camera is my Olympus DSLR, the E-520. That was my first day trying out a new lens, the Zuiko 70-300 (150-600mm in 35mm film terms). The lens is said to perform best in bright light, but the wren was in a tree, in deep shade. So I wasn't expecting much, and was pleasantly surprised. (Of course, I'm not showing you the four or five shots I had to delete.) :-)

We have a robin nesting not far from the wrens. I haven't seen any babies, but I just figured the nest was too high for me to see. However, I do remember seeing babies in it one year. Maybe that was one of the few years the wrens didn't come here in spring.

Here they are . . . I took this in 2006.
alisande
16 years ago
Oh, wait--"we do have robin babies! I went outside a minute ago, carrying a camera (a Panasonic superzoom, not the Olympus above) for another reason, and saw a flicker of movement in the robin's nest. This is what I saw . . . do you think they're hungry? LOL
caroline94535
Original Author
16 years ago
I think they're "Starvin' Marvins", LOL.

That's what I used to call my nephew when he told me, every two hours, "I'm starvin' Aunt Carol; starvin!"

You have wonderful photos. Aren't digital cameras the best. We can now shoot 100 frames, delete 99, and don't have to pay an arm and a leg for the one good shot.
nicole__
16 years ago
Great pics!!!!!!WOW!

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