Fledgling Wrens

I'm happy to report that the wrens which made their nest in the bag of ground oyster shells in our garage have successfully fledged their brood! I checked the bag periodically and saw the chicks developing. They finally left the nest about 2 weeks ago. All five seemed to make it. You may find my earlier post here.

We were going to move the bag off the garage floor, fearing that Dixie, our Border Collie, would get the chicks. I consulted with our Hays County Master Naturalist bird experts and they advised against it. Apparently moving the nest more than a few inches can cause the parents to abandon it.

We did keep the garage door cracked open to try to keep Dixie out and yet allow the parent wrens to come and go and that seemed to work. In the end we decided to just observe and see what happened. It was a pretty dumb place to build a nest and if Dixie hadn't gotten them, some other predator may have. We have plenty of snakes, raccoons, and foxes on the property. The male wren builds several nests in an area and then the female chooses which one to use. This seems like a lot of wasted effort, but apparently it confuses predators as to which nest has the eggs. When the nest was empty, I removed it from the bag and threw it in the yard. Last year, the wrens used the nest again for a second brood and I didn't want that to happen.

It turns out there was another wren nest on the opposite side of our garage, in an empty flower pot. I discovered them a few days after finding the one in the bag. Mary asked if we could have our garage declared a wildlife refuge and get a tax break, but I don't think the laws work that way.

The other nest looks like they all fledged successfully too. That now makes 4 broods that have fledged from our garage in two years.