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at this date.
After I unpacked the car on May 1, I checked the garage nest box that had contained a j chickadee nest when we left for the Carolina Low Country. When, just before our departure, I peered into the box (it has a top opening), a chickadee was nestled down in her nest of moss and animal fur. She peered up at me with an intense, unafraid, unblinking stare.
The wren had indeed thrown out the chickadee eggs, removed the nest, and placed a tangled foundation of sticks in the box.
Male house wrens arrive well ahead of the females from their wintering grounds along the coast of the southeastern states. This arrival is announced by a burst of sound and much activity that involves investigating any possible nesting cavity. Often, short stiff sticks are placed in nest cavities as a sort of down payment and indication of possible occupation for nesting.
On May 11, I checked the bluebird nest box from which the wren had evicted the chickadees. I found the wren nest complete except for a final lining of feathers and grapevine bark; this would form a deep cup in which six to eight eggs would be deposited.
A female has been lured into our back yard by the male’s bursts of bubbly song. It is her duty to select the cavity from among those in which males have placed short twigs and finish the nest.
It’s best to learn to live with house wrens and their destructive nature: Otherwise, one is battling a tiny but determined bundle of energy.
I remind myself not to confuse the fact of predation with the effect of predation. House wrens have been entering nest cavities of other birds and destroying eggs for years beyond counting. Nature has a way of balancing these things out.
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