Proud papa

Every year, we have a nest full of house wrens in our yard. I like to think of them as the same devoted pair coming back every year, but this is not actually too likely. The male travels all around the perimeter of our yard, singing a pretty, warbly song at each stop he makes.

This year the male built a dummy nest in our other nest box (which we'll remove, now that we know it's not being used). The female chooses the nesting site from among the incomplete nests, and then finishes the job with soft material like moss and feathers. According to the Cornell Ornithology Lab, house wrens stick a spider egg sack down in the nest box. When the spiders hatch, they eat the little mites and other parasites that can attack the baby birds. Clever!


This year there seem to be 4 chicks in the nest. They look maybe a week old aready -- eyes open, feathers developing, looking around alertly. Both parents are busy bringing food all day long. We picked a moment when both parents were out foraging to snatch a picture.


No wonder papa's so proud!

Baby wrens

Mr. Lonelyhearts is lonely no more. The little house wren we've been watching in our backyard as he sang next to all our birdhouses and stuffed twigs into each one (a kind of birdie hope chest) has finally made it. Not only did he get a date, but he has married (for the moment), settled down and is raising a family. It's difficult to count the babies. Two little beaks can be seen on the left; in this picture they're closed. They have feathers, so they are a few days old, or perhaps a week.

We opened the roof of the house to take this picture. It's OK to do this if you're quick. The parents resumed bringing food in to the nest as soon as we were out of the way.

Both parents are helping to feed the little guys, coming and going in an endless relay. They also clean the nest, carrying away the poop sacs so that parasites don't endanger the health of the babies. (Been there, changed those diapers!) I won't be able to check on them again until Saturday, but I'm thinking about them often.

Empty nest

I thought I would write about butterflies next, but there is a robin update. The baby robins have grown up and gone off to college. We didn't see them fledge, but after examining the nest and the area around it I'm pretty confident that they made it out on their own without mishap. The nest is intact and undisturbed.

This nest is a work of real beauty. I'm amazed at the carefully molded mud layer pressed against the grass outer layer. It's hard to photograph even now that I'm free to get up close, because it's so well hidden.

It's best to leave it undisturbed. I've read that birds may come back and reuse it for the 2nd brood of the season, building a new layer on top of the old nest first. I've never seen this myself.

Other birds have been carrying nesting material around the yard, so we know there's a lot going on in the nearby bushes and trees, mostly out of sight.

Mr. Lonelyhearts, the little house wren, is still trying to get a date. He's been singing and putting twigs into the birdhouses, but we still don't see a mate.

Nesting update

Robins

Baby robins! We see three tiny beaks in our robin's nest. One looks bigger than the others, but this may be because of its position in the nest. Other (fuzzier) pictures show them all about the same size.


All day the parent robins gather worms and bugs from our back yard and ferry them to the nest. The lawn and especially the flower beds seem to offer a birdie buffet. When they're not feeding the nestlings, the parents are often standing guard in a nearby tree or on the fence. They chase away blue jays who wander into the area. The jays may only be after the peanuts at the feeder, but our robins are taking no chances, since jays are known to eat eggs or prey on nestlings.



Wrens
We're watching our little house wren with some puzzlement. Will he ever get a date? He's put some sticks into all 3 of our birdhouses, and last weekend we saw him fly to each house in turn, perch on the top, and sing. ("Oh, what a beeea-u-tiful nest; I made it just for you-ooo...") But we haven't seen a mate. Last year we had wrens nesting in 2 our of birdhouses, and we saw the pairs together. But we're not sure whether we have a pair, or a lonely bachelor.


This house shows the largest nest of the 3, and so we think they'll nest here, if they nest in our yard at all. The nest is bigger than it was last week, but we're still not sure what they're up to. House wren nests are practically all twigs -- and if you ask me, they could use a few lessons in interior decorating. But the mama wrens seem to like it, and I guess that's what counts.






Chickadees

I have no idea where these little guys are nesting, but we think it must be nearby. I enjoyed watching this chickadee pulling fibers out of my planter--he worked at it for several minutes, and then flew off with a beakful of them. Later, I watched as the pair pulled little vine bits off the brush pile. Chickadees are cavity nesters, so they'll excavate a hole in a tree, or nest in a birdhouse. (Pick ours! Pick ours!)


Visitors of note this weekend included a grey catbird and -- to my utter astonishment -- a cedar waxwing. Butterflies have started appearing too -- and they will be the focus of my next post.

Tenants!

I hadn't seen our back yard for 2 weeks and on Saturday was amazed at the glorious color. The crabapple trees, the dogwood, and the lilacs were all blooming, and everywhere there was the most beautiful green I've ever seen. It's been a very long winter.

House wrens are building in one of our birdhouses. All afternoon we watched as twigs were stuffed through the entrance hole. Sometimes the wren would go back up onto the roof of the house and try again from a different angle. Sometimes, he'd lose the twig altogether. We still don't know if we'll have eggs in the birdhouse. A male house wren will fill several cavities with twigs, and then take the female around for a real estate inspection. She picks out the one she likes, and adds a soft lining of feathers or moss to the nest. We're waiting along with the male to see whether our house will be approved!

In the kids' old playhouse (left) is a robin's nest, the one I wrote about April 7. If you look closely at the photo below, you can see her sitting on the nest. I took this photo with a 300 mm lens from about 25 feet away to avoid disturbing her. She was absolutely motionless and difficult to spot. This nest is fairly close to our back door, and to one of my flower beds. We're trying not to startle the robin, but she seems undisturbed as I work on the bed.

Some interesting birds came to the yard this weekend. Rose-breasted grosbeaks (below) were everywhere. They nest farther north, but pass through Indiana in the spring and fall.

We had 1 oriole, who took some nectar from our young pink dogwood tree. This bird is a rarity in our yard and visited only briefly. My photos were taken from some distance and are not quite as good as I'd like - but I feel lucky to have photos at all. It's gratifying to know that he found nectar in our little tree.

My only disappointment this weekend was that, in spite of 3 feeders, vibrant pink crabapple blossoms, and lots of welcoming hummer- thoughts, we still haven't seen any hummingbirds in the yard. Hurry up, guys! (Please?)

Busy robins

In southern Indiana, it's finally spring. Sunny and in the 60s, perfect weather for gardening. I started clearing the dead foliage from the flower beds, and my mate-4-life mowed the grass for the first time this season. We use a push-mower (no gas), so we can't let it get very long.

There are quite a few robins who hang out in our yard. They hop through the back yard, flicking the leaves aside with their bills and digging worms or bugs out from underneath.

One robin was building a nest somewhere nearby, and kept returning to the back yard for dead grass and plant matter left from last year. The robin in the photo above has a mouthful of old plant fluff and grass; the robin below has strands of grass. Both photos were taken on Sunday in our back yard.

According to my handy reference sources, female robins build the nest in layers: 1-a foundation layer of grass, leaves, and twigs; 2- the mud layer, pressed into a bowl shape on top of the grass layer; and 3-the soft inner lining. Our robins were working on that first layer over the weekend. Robins lay 3-4 blue eggs, and they usually raise 2 broods in one season. They stick with their mate for the season, but not for life.

I think I know where these robins are building, though I haven't been able to spot the nest yet. We put out nesting material in net bags and also on the ground. Feathers, straw, short (3") bits of string or yarn, dog hair, bits of wool -- all make good nesting material. Some we gather from around the house, and some we buy from the local birdwatcher's store. I think it would be cool to find some of my old yarn in a robin's nest. But it looks as though we're producing good nesting material just by not raking the lawn!