House Wrens | Bird Watching Binoculars

Do You Train Your Squirrels? [ July 16th, 2010 ] Posted in » Blog

My Kindergarten Class

Since I moved into my home nine years ago, I’ve had squirrels. My property backs up to a wooded area that borders several properties so I’ve had my fair share. When I started birding seven years ago I decided that I would feed them as well. Since I employ a raccoon baffle on my main feeder station and squirrel baffles on my bluebird houses, I wasn’t concerned about my back yard becoming overly popular. I have a corncob feeder and squirrel box on my back fence and a squngee hanging from one of my smaller trees. There was an initial learning curve for them to learn and trust these feeders but with a mixture of adults and children back there the knowledge was acquired. Whether it took an adult to learn and show a little one or the little ones just happened on it by being nosey, it did happen.

This is no longer the case. Read More …

The House Wrens Have Returned

As I had posted last week, it seemed like my house wrens had disappeared. They had built a nest, incubated eggs, fledged young and even rebuilt a nest for a second brood. Then, they were nowhere to be seen or heard. If you’ve ever had house wrens during mating season in your backyard then you know it’s impossible to miss them. The male sings almost nonstop even after he’s attracted a mate. When that singing stopped I got suspicious and I had to investigate.
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July 27th, 2009 | Leave a Comment

My House Wrens Have Disappeared

After my house wren pair set up a nest, laid eggs and fledged their first brood, I mentioned that I saw the male cleaning out the nest. Then I saw the female putting new soft nesting materials back into the nest box. When I checked around I was told this is how they do it and all was well. Convinced that they were just getting ready to have another brood, I stopped thinking about it. After all, the bluebirds had put their nest together in the other box and already had laid eggs. The house wrens showed no interest in bothering them.
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July 21st, 2009 | 1 Comment

Bluebirds Have Eggs In A Nestbox

After spending about a week visiting the nestbox everyday, the bluebirds have built a nest and now have eggs in it. I’m very happy to see them make the commitment to the box which has also been looked over by my house wren male just in case nobody else wanted it.
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July 5th, 2009 | Leave a Comment

House Wren House Cleaning

I was looking out my window yesterday and I saw something peculiar. One of the house wrens was going in and out their nestbox. That’s not strange given that I knew they had babies in there. It wasn’t until I took a closer look that I found they were not taking food in to the house but taking nesting material out of it.
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June 28th, 2009 | 1 Comment

My House Wrens Are Taking Their Time

It seems like more than a month that the house wrens have moved in and set up shop in my back bluebird box. I’ve had chickadees and bluebirds in this box previously and they never seemed to take so long to fledge their babies.
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June 22nd, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Julie Zickefoose Was Absolutely Correct

Just like Julie Zickfoose had told me, my house wrens are behaving themselves because I’ve allowed them to have one of my bluebird houses. From early in the morning until late at night, I hear both of them singing and calling to each other. It’s actually quite sweet.
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June 12th, 2009 | Leave a Comment