Those little wings are so much more developed in just two days. If you look back to Monday’s post, you can see how much he’s grown.
I keep calling it a him — of course I have no idea if it’s a male or female Carolina Wren!
Tomorrow morning will be my last chance to check on him for a while. We’re heading to Spain tomorrow, so I’ll have to get photos emailed to me from family staying at home. He may have fledged before we get back, but I hope not.
After the egg/nest debacle from 10 days ago, I’ve been anxiously watching the comings and goings of Mama Carolina Wren.
You may remember that I thought the eggs were no longer viable after being in the nest for a month, and I put them in the trash. Til I realized that there were more eggs than when I’d first looked – meaning she’d laid another clutch that might be viable. I wrote about that ordeal in a previous post, put the nest and eggs back very carefully and crossed my fingers.
Last night when I was walking into the house through the garage, I thought I heard the tiniest squeak coming from the nest. I stopped and listened – nothing. But later I saw the hat (and nest) swaying just a bit and wondered again if something was going on in there.
Mama Wren was sitting high up on the eggs, and fairly visible to me, whereas before she was far down in the nest on the eggs where I couldn’t see her.
So I took a peek when she was out of the nest.
What a wonderful sight – a tiny little creature – just born – wiggling around down among the other eggs. If you look very closely (maybe click on the photo to enlarge it) you can make out the face on the new baby.
Honestly, after all this watching and waiting, I felt like I was the Mama!
This morning I took a picture when Mom and Dad were gone — they are both now working on feeding duty.
Hatching can take 24-48 hours and there are 6 more eggs in the nest. Some may be from the first clutch, and not viable, but our new little friend might be getting some siblings over the next few days.
And you can bet I’ll be watching (from a respectable distance)!
You may have seen on my blog that a mama Carolina wren was nesting in a sombrero hanging on our garage wall. She was there for several weeks before Easter. As soon as I found the nest, we kept the door open, but who knows how many times she might have been locked away from them before that.
So today I decided it was time (they are supposed to hatch in 14-16 days) and I put the hat nest and eggs into the garbage can.
But when I did that, I counted 11 eggs and there were only 7 before.
I don’t know why I did it after I’d already gotten rid of the eggs, but I looked online just one more time for what happens when the eggs don’t hatch and what the mama does. All the other times I googled it I came up with nothing, but today I found a resource that says that birds will sometimes lay a second clutch of eggs later on top of the unhatched ones, since the nest is already made.
Oh no!
That would explain why there were now 5 more eggs.
So after I had a really good cry, my Mom convinced me to go out and try to save it all. I used a paper towel folded over like a pot holder to put the nest back in the sombrero. Then I took a tablespoon and gently lifted all the eggs I could find out of the trash can and into the nest and then I hung the sombrero back in the garage.
Checked a little bit ago and mama is sitting on the eggs again. I just hope there are some viable ones in there – think I got 7 back into the nest – hope some of them are the new ones, but that was all I could find. One broke and I couldn’t get the others.
At least I tried and I feel better. And I learned a lesson. Well, maybe two lessons – don’t move nests until there is absolutely no adult activity, and … keep the garage door closed all the time so they won’t make nests in my garage.
Or, (more likely) put a birdy – door in our garage!
Count them. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven speckled little Carolina wren eggs. Sitting in a tree…wait, no, sitting in a …hat!
We’re had a wren flying in and out of the garage now for weeks. We tried to keep her from making the nest, but now that we’ve discovered it, we’re keeping the garage open so she can stay with her eggs.
This is an old Sombrero left over from a fiesta-themed summer party. Imagine my surprise to find that it’s become a stylish condo for Mrs. Wren.
Her cousin was nesting in the garage last spring — here she’s in a lovely blue and white porcelain flower pot. Sadly, opening and closing of the garage door before we knew she was there kept her from the nest too long and there were no babies last spring.
I’m hoping we found the hat nest in time this year.
I could have filmed a nature documentary here today.
First, my three friendly new deer visitors came looking for a late lunch and I gave them some water. This spring we have a Mama doe and two yearling bucks visiting regularly.
I went in the garage to get another saucer for some corn. Just as I was reaching for a tray, a Carolina wren flew out of the shelf, not more than a few inches from my hand!
I screamed (not uncommon for me here in critter-land), and realized she had just flown out of a nest right above my hand.
The wrens have been in and out of the garage lately, so I’ve been keeping it 1/2 closed, thinking I had deterred them before they started a nest.
HA!
(Remember, I am NOT in charge!)
There it was — a sweet little nest inside a blue and white pot, with 7 tiny speckled eggs in it.
I waited a while and checked again, and found the Mama burrowed deep down in the nest, covering her eggs and guarding them with her life.
It you look carefully, you can see her head at the bottom. I was trying not to disturb her too much, but I did get a better shot on my second try.
She’s really giving me the evil eye here!
I high-tailed it out of there, but not before putting a saucer with birdseed and water close by her when she has to be in the garage and can’t get out.
I’m going to leave the doors open when I am home, opened the windows for air, and will leave the doors cracked when I can, trying to make sure she is IN and not OUT, when the doors have to be closed for a long time.
I thought about slowly moving it outside the garage, a few feet at a time, but there are two very predatory cats next door, so I couldn’t get them to a safe enough height.
Here are our little deer friends. This little buck is quite plucky – he gets really close to me and once even acted like he was coming to me. He’s clearly young!
This is their Mama, who’s always with them and keeping an eye out while they much. They have eaten on a few of my smaller or newly blooming plants, normally left alone. I think they are really hungry and too young to have a very sophisticated palate yet. Oh, heck, who knows why!
Oh, yes, and while I was taking pictures of the birds and moved on to the deer, a Texas horny toad lizard shot out between my feet!
I should be charging rent! Or filming for some reality show!