Today, May 18, there are six tiny speckled eggs

Today, May 18, there are six tiny speckled eggs in the house wren nest in the back yard. The incubating female flew out when I opened the box.

On May 1, Lee and I turned into our driveway after nearly two weeks in South Carolina. When I opened the car door, the first sound I heard was the bubbly, effervescent song of the house wren. For a bird not much longer than four inches, the male wren has plenty of volume.

“The house wren is back,” I said.

“I hope he behaves,” said Lee Trott.

Lee has difficulty accepting the nature of house wrens. I try to be more objective, more scientific.

For two years in a row, the house wren returned to our Flint Hill yard in May and entered the nest box near the garage where the bluebird was nesting. The bluebird eggs were thrown out and the nest destroyed. This is typical house wren behavior. The wren then placed a few sticks in the box.

Result: no bluebirds to brighten our back yard.

One year, Lee was so angry with the wren that she checked the nest box each day and removed the wren’s sticks. If there was to be no bluebird nest in the back yard, neither would there be a wren nest.

I see trying to out-maneuver a house wren as a losing endeavor. With persistent energy, the bird places sticks in any available or possible nesting cavity. If one is to judge wrens by human rules of good behavior, the house wren is not a very companionable neighbor to other cavity-nesting birds, such as chickadees and titmice. And bluebirds.

Whether or not a house wren disrupts nesting of the most famous of all cavity nesters, the woodpeckers, I do not know. Nor can I find any reference in ornithological literature. I rather doubt the wren would disturb the nest of a downy woodpecker and am reasonably certain the nest of the big, bold and aggressive red-bellied woodpecker would not be disturbed by a wren.

These two cavity nesters started excavations weeks ago and are incubating white eggs