January 19th, 2015

Last week while studying Winter Birds we decided to check out one of the nest boxes in the field.  “Will there be a bird in the box?” I asked.  Probably not, the class replied.  “Will there be a nest in the box?”  Maybe.  “Let’s look”, and I loosened the screw to flip open the front of the box.  Wow, a nest made of twigs built by a house wren last summer, almost completely filling the inside space.

I explained that the eggs are laid in a little depression at the back corner of the structure, out of reach of the probing arms of predators like squirrels and racoons.  “Can we see the eggs?” they asked.  “There won’t be any eggs, it’s winter – birds only lay eggs in spring and summer” and I began to remove the nest to prove it.  “Look, there are 4 eggs” they shouted excitedly.  “Don’t be silly” I began, but had to stop when I saw there were in fact 4 tiny wren eggs still in the nest.

 

 

One egg had been pierced, the work of a competitor, maybe a house sparrow or even another wren.  Both species have been the undoing of other birds that have taken up residence in our boxes.  A chickadee was killed by wrens last spring after completing nest construction and egg laying, and eastern bluebirds were victimized in 2012.  In nature it’s called competition.

So I stuffed the twig structure back into the box, closed the door, and off we went in search of other great discoveries.  Tomorrow I’ll show total surprise when we “re-discover” this amazing sight 😉   Kirk Wipper, a mentor of mine from long-ago, called this “cultivating the art of significant encounters.”