Carolina Wrens Move In

It has been a very late spring this year.  It has been cold and even snow, with school getting out for multiple snow days.  Although it impacts us less, it has been rainy or snowy almost every weekend for the last seven or eight weeks.  It has certainly not felt like spring.  At least it is good for the lakes, which are slowly recovering from our multi-year drought.  Lewisville Lake has come up over three feet in the last six weeks. 

Spring arrives.  Finally this week it suddenly got warmer.  The Bradford pears burst into bloom, our Cedar elms began to leaf out in a matter of 48 hours, and the Carolina jasmine finally turned yellow with flowers.

Carolina jasmine in bloom, six weeks later than some years. 

Birds building nests in the backyard.  The many birds that visit our feeder and watering bowls also took notice.  A pair of bluejays have built a nest high in the ligustrum above the den window.  The white-winged doves are sitting on a nest in the yaupon holly over my car. Given the number of cardinals that are around, we assume they have nests nearby as well, although we do not know where.

Wrens in the wren houses.  We especially like to see and hear the Carolina wrens that dig around in the backyard for worms and bugs.  They can be very loud and melodious despite their small size.  To encourage them, we hung two wren houses last spring/summer.  One is on the edge of the patio near the backdoor.  The other is outside of our bathroom window.

We saw a wren move a few twigs into the bathroom house for about a day last summer, but then abandoned that activity.  Multiple birds have checked out the patio house, but have shown no interest in moving in.  Perhaps it is too much in the open or too much activity nearby.  I have watched intently, hoping for activity, but nothing seemed to be happening.

Suddenly Saturday morning, we saw lots of activity around the house outside our bathroom window.  Two wrens were busily carrying twigs, grass, and other materials into the house.  As you can see near the end of the video below, they were working hard but did not quite have the technique mastered.

 

Consider viewing in full screen--wrens are small

Despite the setbacks, they kept working.  They continued taking large amounts of material into the house.  In addition to twigs, I saw them carrying grass, small pieces of mulch, pine needles, feathers, and plastic.  I even saw one of them diligently work through the yaupon, pulling off silk from cocoons that were in various places throughout the bush.  As you can see from the video below, their technique has improved noticeably.

 

Given all of the material they have taken into the house, I cannot imagine the size of the nest.  According to online sources, the female will likely lay 3-7 eggs.  They will hatch in about 14 days.  The little birds will be ready to fly in about 14 days after that. Wrens typically raise two or three broods each year.  I don't know if we will be able to get photographic evidence of any of this activity.  Stay tuned.