• House Wren Family

    After the bluebird failure this spring, a pair of house wrens moved into the bluebird box on the blackberry trellis. They actually filled both bluebird boxes with nests but only laid eggs in one, which I later learned is common practice. The unused nest is called a “dummy nest”. Once the eggs hatched, we diligently kept the cats indoors to make sure that once the babies fledged, they wouldn’t fall prey to our viscous cats’ claws. Two days ago, the…

  • House Wrens

    There’s a new bird family moving into the blackberry trellis box – House Wrens. To make sure I had identified them correctly, I played their calls on a phone app, and sure enough, they sang back to me. After the bluebirds moved on once their nest attempt failed (we suspect blue jays picked off the remaining living baby birds), I cleaned out the nest cup. Some bluebird enthusiasts advised leaving it in for a second round, some advised cleaning it…