Almost ready to leave the nest

 

It might be annoying for some people but I have no problem at all waking up every morning by the song and flutelike melody of the House Wrens that have their nest in a bird box just in front of our house.

They are extremely busy lately because their offspring needs a lot of food. Both parents care for the baby birds and bring grasshoppers, spiders, and caterpillars to the nest. The size of the pray becomes bigger as the young birds grow.

They stick their little head out of the hole and even if one of them had just received a meal they ask immediately for more as you can see in the third image. We don't know exactly how many baby wrens are in the nest. I have seen at least two at the same time but I believe there are at least three or four in the box. We expect them to leave the nest within the next few days and hopefully nothing will prevent them to grow up. Last year the first brood was destroyed by a raccoon. We have a another bird box behind the house and can hear the offspring of a second pair of wrens in this one as well. The frequent rain lately and the warm weather are ideal for all kinds of insects and the young House Wrens have obviously enough to eat. Beside the raccoons there is another predator around that likes to get a hold of the young birds, but this is for another post...

Bye, bye little wrens!

I can't move on to the next thing here in my blog without finishing the little story about the House Wrens in our front yard, although these images are already a week old. Friday afternoon the female was still feeding the young birds in the nest box. The insects she carried were quite big and this told me that the young wrens would leave the nest very soon. Ones in a while a young bird would stick its head out of the hole but I have been unable to find out how many birds mama wren was actually feeding.

However, we were not at home during the weekend and when we came back on Sunday the young wrens were gone. As you maybe remember the first brood was destroyed earlier this summer and all what I can hope for is that the little House Wrens are somewhere out there growing up and making it safely to their winter grounds in the South. I can't wait until next spring when a male will send out his trilling, flutelike melody in order to attract a female right in front of the bedroom window. You can bet on that the nest box will be cleaned and will be ready to host the next generation of House Wrens. They are so much fun to watch and a great subject to improve the skills for wildlife photography.