To me, watching a hornet lay down a fresh stripe of chewed wood pulp rates right up there with spiders doing their web chores every evening and cicadas emerging: it's something that takes an incredibly long time to observe but so totally engrossing that time almost seems suspended. I have always found the nests fascinating, despite the fact that they are seldom at an elevation for easy viewing. I have found four very large and complete ones in my life; the others were simply the tattered remains of those that had weathered a hard winter or caught the eye of someone less appreciative of their engineering. Two years ago I noticed a large number of hornets visiting our old wooden pumphouse, a relic of the days before we had city water and a bonanza of good building material. I tried and tried to follow each successive hornet deeper into the woods to find out where they were all headed ( I hear this is an old settler's trick for locating a bee tree)but I eventually lost them. It was not until late that winter when all the leaves were long gone that I found it, high in the top of a spindly tree---elm, I think it was. The wind had whipped the tree tops all around and the nest was slowly being peeled of its layers. Every so often a hike in that direction would turn up another section of nest. I wonder if the insects do a good job of repair when it happens ear;y in the year? I will have to check out your link, jillhudock. I suspect there might be some good reading there. I do know, however, that I did rob some creatures of a possible resource by bringing it inside: I have noticed wrens roosting in the holes of winter nests so they do provide shelter (wouldn't be surprised to find lady bugs and other overwintering creatures tucked in the crevices as well) and I will bet you my best hiking boots that those wrens, as well as woodpeckers and nuthatches and so on would do their best to get at these tasty sleepers when the snows blow and calories are scarce.

Thanks for the replies! The thing is, there HAS been a nestbox available both years. Last year it was on a pole (and I've got an extra baffle for the pole if necessary), and this year I've used it as a HOSP trap and mounted it on the house and then on a tree. The blues have never shown any interest in the nest box, where ever it was. Never even seen them go in or sit on it. They nested their first brood last year in another snag that had a hole about 20 feet up, but that snag fell over last summer so they moved to the one they like now. The only birds showing interest in the nest box have been the HOSPs (trapped 1 last year, 2 this year with the Van ert) and some HOWRs last year after which I removed their sticks and left the box open. Fortunately this year the HOSPs have since stayed away more or less and no sign of any HOWRs. X my fingers they stay away. I speculate that perhaps these birds were raised in natural cavities and that is what they're most comfortable with? There must be some way to baffle the tree?

Tressa, I know there are 2 or 3 different kinds, that little winter wren was the only one we have had to nest in a box, these are house wrens I guess, and I am not sure if that is the same as the Carolina wren. They are not afraid of anything and ours like to find some unusual place in our garage, like they knocked all the nuts and bolts out of a nook and put it there, we have had some that raised their babies then never came back, maybe a snake or hawk around. I have heard of them nesting in hanging baskets, and even one story I read of one coming in a ladies house and nesting on the mantel in her living room, they will come through a small opening. I know that warning call that you are talking about, sort of a growl. My dh said they never use the same nest twice, so maybe you can check around the area. Hope you have them again....

I agree that wrapping climbers is more work than it's worth and can backfire by not helping much. In my zone 5 Nebraska windy windy climate with little snow cover, I do provide wind breaks at the edge of all my rose beds and around any roses that I've discovered are finicky. My method is a lazy one - I pinch the filled leaf bags from the curbs of folks in my neighborhood and stand them up around the more tender roses on the windy side or all around if feasible (not as likely for climbers). This creates effective "down coats" for the more tender roses and can buy me a zone's worth of protection without any moisture remaining next to the canes for risk of canker. In spring, I dump the leaves in the beds to replace the mulch that disintegrated over the winter, or pull the bags to a side spot for use later in the summer. Lazy mulching and weed protection too... Ameri2nal is right that you need to wait for this till the ground is frozen solid so that you don't get critters taking over your protection. For me, this is usually around Christmas. Don't worry about the cold leading up to that - you want them to go as dormant as they'll get, and you're mostly creating a windbreak. For your climbers, I've grown them all and by far the hardiest is Westerland. That one doesn't really need much protection, but as Seil says if you can keep surviving cane on a climber that's just more growth for the spring. Mel's Heritage is touchy at surviving even in zone 7, and it's a long shot even in a virtual zone 6 where I had mine (it died without even pretending to survive an average winter). If you protect only one, I'd try that one. Bleu Magenta has never gotten big enough to climb for me, and it also has died on me twice over the winter. Aschermittwoch has also died once, but I've got it in a different spot and we'll see. The goofy colored lavender and grey roses tend to be less hardy than other colors on average, so again you may be looking at some protection or replacing them with more reliable climbers for our zone. Hope this helps - it's worth a try regardless of whether you protect or not. Cynthia