Sad News

I was mowing the lawn today and found 3 tiny, broken Chickadee eggs lying on the ground at the base of the pole the nesting tube was on. It must have just happened because the yolk of the eggs was still in liquid form. I'm afraid a House Wren destroyed those eggs then tossed them out of the tube. After taking the nesting tube down I opened it up only to find a beautiful but empty nest.



I cleaned the tube out and relocated it to a different spot in the yard. I guess one nice house isn't good enough for those darn House Wrens. They are very territorial and very persistent. Here's a video of a House Wren taking baby Bluebirds out of their nest.

It upset me so much that I decided to go and remove the stick nest in the bird house out back but when I looked inside I could see the female has already started getting it ready to lay her eggs. It's illegal to destroy it at this point. House Wrens will build 'dummy' nests to discourage other birds from using a nesting box, even if they don't plan on using that box themselves. But once they've chosen a particular box, the female finishes building a nest, then lays her eggs.

I'm not so happy about the Wren House any more.