She could have been flushed from the nest completely, too much disturbance/ stress can cause birds to abanda nest.

I too hate feral cats. We have a neighbor who lets his out during the day and I have found dead mourning doves, finches, and chickadees in my yard and of course, piles of cat $#!t in my landscaping and vegetable beds. Every time I see the cats out front, I let the dog out to chase them. If they are allowed out, so is he. Allowing cats to roam, and feral cat populations, are nothing besides a nuisance and serve no purpose besides being a bad neighbor and unleashing destruction out into the world. Keep your cats in the damn house!

Im very sorry about your wren nest :(.

Thanks Zach. We have farmer neighbors with lots of barn cats. One of them tries to neuter them all, but I find that sort of unbelievable. I have to admit, I do like how they keep the mouse population in our barn down, but that's all I like about them.

Do you think first-time wren moms are more easily scared off than older ones? It's just curious I didn't hear any screaming from her for awhile.

Just found a house wren nest in a new bluebird house I put up in early spring. Oh well. House wrens can be pretty mean.......but that's just nature, right? I try not to pick and choose which beings I prefer..........until it comes to feral cats...... But I guess it's their owners I should have the problem with.

That's good, about your township rule Pat! I wish we had that here. We occasionally have loose dog problems too. One time 2 crazy big dogs showed up and were very crazy....trying to get into the window. When DH got home and opened the front door, they tried to get in. Then another time, another couple of dogs ruined the side of our shed, trying to get to a rabbit underneath it. I called the Sheriff's office and a deputy came out.......but of course the dogs were gone. He said to try to get a picture the next time. I didn't think of that at the time.........plus, who wants to go out and take pictures of potentially dangerous dogs? Oh....and another dog dug up a drain under our long driveway and tore it to pieces, trying to get to an animal hiding in it.

Funny story........we had a gray cat hang around for a long time. On my way to the small town near here, I saw it dead on the road. I felt bad for it. So I picked it up and brought it home and buried it in the woods. A few days later I saw it again, and again. I realized that there's a lot of gray cats around here!

At least your neighbor doesn't have 4 dogs that they let bark all day long, while they are at work! (lots of people do that).

catherine, oh yes I did have 2 dogs bark all day outside while owner was at work. When I complained about it the owner simply said "I will NOT leave my dogs inside all day and besides your dog barks too once in a while."

The lack of consideration in this world just blows me away to this day.

The lady who lives through the woods behind me used to leave her dog bark all day. And it did bark nonstop all day. I called her and very nicely mentioned it to her. She said, "yeah.....that's what dogs do." A couple days later she called back and said "I talked to the sheriff and my lawyer and I don't have to do anything." Yeah....so much for consideration of your neighbor.

Well we lost a wren chick. I just found it right under the nest box. Hopefully the others survived but there's no telling. One of the parents has injuries as well. I don't know what variety of attacker it was, possibly cat, it squirrel, another bird, or who knows. Once the chicks fledge they are about as vulnerable as they will ever be. No longer protected by the four walls and a roof of the nest box and weak flying abilities. It must be hard to be a small mostly defenceless creature. Nature is cruel mistress indeed.

Hey Zach, what do you have the nestbox on? What kind of injuries does the parent have? I had a clutch of bluebird babies once on a tall metal pole with a racoon baffle and still lost most of the babies. I've heard that wrens can do this to other bird nests. I know some areas have trouble with snakes. I've had too many bird babies die. I had a nest of phoebes over my porch light, and it appeared that maybe a red squirrel (?) jumped quite a distance from a chair to reach it. It's amazing any baby birds ever make it! I've often wondered if the parents "grieve", or do they just go on without thinking and have more??

I don't like cat's killing birds either. But I also have problems with wrens too. I have purple martins, blue birds, and tree swallows on my property. In the past I have lost more BB babies and nest to wrens then I have anything else, even sparrows. Every year I would find a BB nest or two with all the babies killed and twigs piled on top of them with wrens nesting. They are little but can cause some problems.

Yeah, the wrens can be rather aggressive. Are the Carolinas as aggressive as the house wrens?

Catherine, I think the attack happened as the chicks fledged. I couldn't see REALLY well, but the parent had an apparent broken leg/foot (it just kind of dangled while it perched on the fence and while it flew) and the feathers on the back were in obvious disarray. Like I said, there is no way to know who the attacker was, small birds are pretty low end of the food chain for a multitude of other creatures. There were four chicks in the nest and I only found the one deceased one, so I'm hopeful the other three made it.

Flyin, yeah, I understand that. However wrens, blue birds, swallows, and martins have all coexisted (even if not very nicely in all cases) since creation. We can no more judge the behavior of a wren towards a nest of bluebirds than we can a lion hunting a zebra. While the wrens destruction may be a "problem" for the indevidual blue birds, it's important to remember that in the wider ecological sense we can't necessarily say that their behavior is "problematic." they are simply trying to survive the best way that they know how, too.

Cats on the other hand are an outside influence that were brought into the mix by us. Of course the cat doesn't know any better, it's only being a cat. Really my anger is directed at the irresponsible choices of the owners (which is why I may stress and haze the cats in an effort to keep them out of my yard, I would never do anything to actually hurt them).

So sorry to hear about your wrens. I agree...damn cats. We have a neighbour that feeds ferol cats and also has birdseed out as well as a birdbath and birdhouse...go figure. The cats prowl around the neighbourhood all night....damn cats. Poor birds that decide to nest around here!