The baby wrens have been peeking out of the nest box for a few days now. They are so cute and so very hungry. The parents franticly hunt for insects all day long. Bug after bug, and the babies keep peeping for more.
On Monday, I slept in a little. I had been planning on watching the babies leave the nest, and had hoped to snap a few photos. Well, I was disapointed when I finally made it out on the deck, coffee in hand and camera at the ready, and heard no peeps. I watched for about an hour, but there was no action. No peeps from the nest box and no parents making round trips to my gardens for insects. The babies were gone! I missed it.
Later in the day, while weeding near the back of my yard, I heard the familiar wren calls. They were back in the woods behind my house, probably teaching the babies how to hunt. I hear them occasionally while working in the yard and wonder how many babies there are. How many made it. It is not unlike my real situation. All our children are moved out and on their own. We still worry about them constantly and hope they will all make it.
Another lesson from nature. Nurture your children, worry about them, but know when to back off and let them fly on their own. Letting go is a very difficult thing to do, but if you have done your job well, they will soar and make you proud.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
House Wren Update
The wrens are working from dawn to dusk seeking food for their babies. They make what must be a couple hundred trips a day. The are very good hunters and come back with everything from moths to catepillers. The babies started out with tiny little peeps from within the nest box. As they grow and begin competing with each other for food, the peeps have grown louder and on occasion one will even peer from the hole. I can only imagine what they think of this huge world outside their current home!
I described the process of the wrens nest building and courting in my first post. There is more to the story that is every bit as interesting. Like most song birds, the wrens keep a tidy nest. The babies actually deposit neat little fecal sacks in the nest. You will see one of the parents bring a bug to the little ones and then carry off one of these little sacks. They fly off and casually drop it along the way to search for another tasty morsell for the babies.
The wrens are extremely ferocios when it comes to defending their property. I say property because they generally tend to claim about a quarter acre as their own. If any other bird gets too close to the nest box they will buzz the fellow until he retreats. The whole time they are dive-bombing the intruder, they are chattering. They generally have a very sweet song and sing very loudly. The Chippewa Indians called the wren O-du-na-mis-sug-ud-da-we-shi, meaning big noise for its size. And it is very loud for it's size.
The next update will come when the babies leave the nest. In the mean time, you can enjoy the picture I have included with this post.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Everything in Bloom
I love this time of the year because everything I have planted and nurtured has come alive! I love growing flowers and especially lilies and roses. The lillies are bursting with color. There are day lillies that close their blooms each night are reopen each morning. I have orange and two varieties of yellow. There are also pink, orange, red, and lavender star gazers. I have to clip some of these for my wife to display in the house.
I have several varieties of roses as well. My favorite are the knockouts that bloom from spring into the fall. The are very prolivic, allowing for weekly boquets for the house. I also grow red climbers and have white and pink bushes. My wife love to dry flowers and make reaths.
A few years abo I purchses a small shrub, an oak leaf hydrangia, to plant in the rear of the yard and it has grown slowly, but this year it really took off. It has 10 to 12 inch oak-shaped leaves and this year but our large clusters of gorgeous white foowers. It is going to become one of my favorites.
I also like to grow a few vegetables. Last year I experimented with red skin potatoes and they did very well in my sandy soil. They are relatively easy to grow and I placed them in front of my rose bushes. They taste so much better than what you buy in the produce section of the grocery, with bright white meat and a thin skin. This year I doubled the number of plants. I just pulled back the soil around a few of the plants and we should be eating fresh potatoes in a week or so.
We have tomatoes and bananna peppers in planters, yellow wax beans, strawberries, and raspberries. Nothing tastes better than fruits and vegetables fresh from the garden. We do all this on our quarter acre lot. If you use your imagination with the space you have, you can grow about anything you like.
A few years ago we won an award for having the best lawn and landscape in our neighborhood. Each mail carrier nominates a few houses on his/her route, and then those are judged by a committee of professionals. You receive a nice certificate and they post the winners in the local paper. We took second place in 2007 and hope to do well this year. It is nice to receive recognition for somethng you enjoy doing.
I have several varieties of roses as well. My favorite are the knockouts that bloom from spring into the fall. The are very prolivic, allowing for weekly boquets for the house. I also grow red climbers and have white and pink bushes. My wife love to dry flowers and make reaths.
A few years abo I purchses a small shrub, an oak leaf hydrangia, to plant in the rear of the yard and it has grown slowly, but this year it really took off. It has 10 to 12 inch oak-shaped leaves and this year but our large clusters of gorgeous white foowers. It is going to become one of my favorites.
I also like to grow a few vegetables. Last year I experimented with red skin potatoes and they did very well in my sandy soil. They are relatively easy to grow and I placed them in front of my rose bushes. They taste so much better than what you buy in the produce section of the grocery, with bright white meat and a thin skin. This year I doubled the number of plants. I just pulled back the soil around a few of the plants and we should be eating fresh potatoes in a week or so.
We have tomatoes and bananna peppers in planters, yellow wax beans, strawberries, and raspberries. Nothing tastes better than fruits and vegetables fresh from the garden. We do all this on our quarter acre lot. If you use your imagination with the space you have, you can grow about anything you like.
A few years ago we won an award for having the best lawn and landscape in our neighborhood. Each mail carrier nominates a few houses on his/her route, and then those are judged by a committee of professionals. You receive a nice certificate and they post the winners in the local paper. We took second place in 2007 and hope to do well this year. It is nice to receive recognition for somethng you enjoy doing.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
House Wrens
In my yard ( I am on only a quarter acre ) I have several nesting boxes. Some are for sparrows or whoever gets there first, but I have 6 boxes for the house wrens that visit yearly. Three of these boxes are near my deck and are at various altitudes. The other three are in pine trees or bushes near the rear of the yard.
Each year I enoy the antics of the wrens. The male arrives in late March and will build nests in 3 to 4 or the boxes. He finds twigs, grass, and whatever nesting material he can and loads the boxes. He takes breaks during the building process to fly high into a tree and sing. This is how he attracts a mate. He is very industrious and persistant. Build, sing, build, sing.... On it goes until he finally gets a female to come visit.
When at last he attracts a female wren, he takes her around to all the boxes and shows her the nests he has built. She inspects each and every inch of each nest and SHE decides which one will be home. Upon making this decision, she invariably proceeds to haul out some of the nesting material and replaces it with "better" building material. I am facinsted by this sequence of events because it seems to parralell human life. We date, marry, and the woman takes over the nest....
Anyway, this year the female wren chose the nest box hanging on my arbor. It is only feet away from my favorite chair on the deck and so I have a front row seat to the whole process. She is sinnting on eggs now and I will soon be the proud "grandpa" of 4 - 5 bouncing young wrens. I will keep you posted on the process....
Bob Johnson
Each year I enoy the antics of the wrens. The male arrives in late March and will build nests in 3 to 4 or the boxes. He finds twigs, grass, and whatever nesting material he can and loads the boxes. He takes breaks during the building process to fly high into a tree and sing. This is how he attracts a mate. He is very industrious and persistant. Build, sing, build, sing.... On it goes until he finally gets a female to come visit.
When at last he attracts a female wren, he takes her around to all the boxes and shows her the nests he has built. She inspects each and every inch of each nest and SHE decides which one will be home. Upon making this decision, she invariably proceeds to haul out some of the nesting material and replaces it with "better" building material. I am facinsted by this sequence of events because it seems to parralell human life. We date, marry, and the woman takes over the nest....
Anyway, this year the female wren chose the nest box hanging on my arbor. It is only feet away from my favorite chair on the deck and so I have a front row seat to the whole process. She is sinnting on eggs now and I will soon be the proud "grandpa" of 4 - 5 bouncing young wrens. I will keep you posted on the process....
Bob Johnson
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