Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
The Inadvertant Nest Box
The old gray grill, she ain't what she used to be. In more ways than one. Now she's a nest box.
We haven't used the grill at Tangled Branches North yet this year. I opened it up this afternoon to see how big a cleaning job awaited me, and it was bigger than I thought. About half the grill surface was covered with a nest which I first took to be a mouse nest (we've had those before), but then in the center of the loose mossy nest I noticed tiny heads and open beaks. Oops, sorry, I'm not your mama, and I don't want your mama mad at me. I closed the lid. Yesterday and today, I had seen a Carolina Wren carrying food across the deck and I didn't think much about it except that there must be a nest close by. Later this afternoon, we watched the wren carrying food again, but this time we saw it enter the grill through the hole for the rotisserie.
I'll take a picture of the nest after the babies have flown.
We're going out for dinner.
Labels: birds
12 Comments:
how funny! good that it wasn't a mouse nest
~plantgirl of http://squarefootgardenblog.com
LOL! Well, that's a very good reason to go out to eat. How long do you think you'll be grill-less? (And will those babies eventually plop through the rotisserie hole and out onto your deck?)
Well how neat is that! I can't wait to see what the nest looks like.
omg, I would never be expecting that! I'd say that's a pretty ingenious spot as long as no one fires up the grill. good thing you looked first!
What a perfect excuse not to clean the BBQ
Plantgirl: I don't know what I'd have done if there were baby mice instead of baby birds. If I have to have a nest in my grill I definitely prefer birds.
Blackswamp Girl: Any excuse will do for going out ;-) I'm clueless about nest boxes in general. I guess mama will coax her offspring out when she thinks they're ready? Or she gets tired of feeding them? Being wrens, they don't have much growing to do to reach full size, but I have no idea how long it takes. Got to read up on this.
Lisa: I thought of taking pictures of the nest with the babies in, but decided to leave them alone. Frances had a wren's nest in her shed recently. The one in the grill looked very similar.
Kathleen: Rotisseried wren maybe? They'd never fit on the spit ;-) Just kidding! I could never eat anything so cute.
PatientGardener: I think it would have been a big cleaning job even without the nest. I'm happy to put it off for a while longer ;-)
well, i hope you do get to see the fledglings emerge! great idea for a nest! smart birds!
for some reason my computer is not showing your pics--- but ...Happy International Migratory Bird Day!!
Awwww! Funny what birds will see as the ideal home sometimes, isn't it?
Em: I read that they leave the nest in 12 to 14 days, so I shouldn't have long to wait.
Squirrel: Thanks for alerting me to International Migratory Bird Day! I decided to watch the birds this morning and got a life bird. I'm going to do a post about it later today.
Kylee: Our house must be very bird-friendly or something. We've had house sparrows nesting in the roof vents, something nesting on the propane tanks, phoebes on the outdoor light fixture, and now this.
Hello Entangled,
We have to latch the shed door behind us at every entrance or exit...otherwise in the 3 minutes it takes to push the mower up to the front there will be a handful of wrens inside house shopping.
But they'd better stay away from the grill! It's in use all year round not only for regular grilling, but for things we don't want to cook inside, including fish and roasting peppers.
Annie
PS Pam/Digging just gave me a start of the Lyre-leaved sage. The hummingbirds come for the other Salvias so I hope this one blooms for them some day.
Post a Comment
<< Tangled Branches: Cultivated, main page