Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Wren Update
I couldn't stand the suspense.
I saw a female Brown-Headed Cowbird yesterday in the yard, and got to thinking, What if the grill-nest wrens are raising cowbird babies? So I took a quick peek with the camera in hand. Wren babies - phew! Sorry for the crummy photo (cursed autofocus thought I wanted to show you the nest not the birds) but I didn't want to disturb them too much.
According to the Cornell Ornithology web site, Carolina wrens fledge in 12-14 days. We should have our grill back soon.
Update: Never write anything in a hurry. Several hours after posting this, it dawned on me that the title Grill Babies could just possibly be misconstrued. Not at all what I intended.
New innocuous title: Wren Update
Labels: birds
12 Comments:
What an incredible photo of the nest, just kidding. The picture is great, they are so cute. So you are cooking inside for now? Was mama wren squawking at you while you photographed the little wee ones?
Frances at Faire Garden
That was a bad title, wasn't it? I never thought of it though until you mentioned it. Funny!
Good shot!
Actually, I like the picture of the nest the way it is. Somehow it seems fitting that you can't completely see the babies. :)
I'm glad there weren't cowbirds in your wren's nest; just sweet little baby wrens.
Do Cowbirds do that, too? I knew that Blue Jays did, but I didn't know about the Cowbird. Shoot.
Frances: It seems strange that such a tiny bird would build such a big nest. Yeah, it's indoor cooking here for another week or so until they're all grown up. I didn't see mama wren anywhere around when I was spying on her babies, but I notice she's still very busy searching for food and carrying it back to the nest.
Jane Marie: Sheesh, I can be such a dunce sometimes. What's the emoticon for embarrassed?
Blackswamp Girl: Good thinking! It was supposed to be that way. The babies are pretty well camouflaged, and this time they stayed very still when I opened the lid.
Robin: Aren't they cute? I hope I see them around after they leave the nest.
Lisa: I'm not sure if cowbirds specifically parasitize wren nests - I know they do it to other smaller birds and the poor parents wear themselves out trying to feed babies that are bigger than they are. I hadn't seen a cowbird here this year until Monday.
You mean to say there are both grill babies and buoy babies in that nest?
My autofocus tries to boss me around too, Entangled.
Annie
LOL - Oh Annie, you crack me up!
I was happy just to know that they were wren babies. ;-)
ha, you are funny. glad there aren't any cowbirds in there. we have several songbird nests in my yard, which are inaccessible, and i have the same worry after seeing the cowbirds this winter. today i heard 'peewee, peewee!' i love spring. thanks for a great post.
Em: When we used to have house sparrows nesting in the vent above the garage, we'd hear little "cheeps" when the babies first hatched, and then the sound would get louder and deeper as they grew. It was kind of cool to hear the changes.
It seems we have a lot of cowbirds and catbirds this year. The catbirds have even displaced the mocking bird we usually have on our roof.
I was surprised when I heard the familiar multi-songed mocker singing only to find that it was a catbird instead! I thought catbirds only had a soft mew, mew sound but not so. I played it on my songbird book of bird calls and sure enough they seem to have almost as extensive repertoire as the mocker.
I love the cocky Carolina wrens but unfortunately we see only a few per year. You are so fortunate to have a whole family there.
Ki: I didn't know that about the catbirds' song, but that might explain something that I heard over the weekend. I thought I was listening to a mockingbird, but the sound was coming from the woods and the mockingbird doesn't usually spend much time there. I'll have to see if I can find the singer next time I hear that.
I hope the wrens fledged safely - I haven't seen a single one all day.
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