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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…
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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…
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Bluebirds
One of my resolutions for the year was to further establish habitat for the birds in our yard. We installed two bluebird boxes, which I picked up from my local State Employees Credit Union. The box on the blackberry trellis was quickly found by a pair of Eastern Bluebirds, and after a brief kerfuffle with a Brown-headed Nuthatch, they soon made the box home and laid five perfect, light blue eggs. The second box appears to be inhabited by House Wrens,…
