Watching the wrens!

[PGBird]

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Isn't it fun to discover baby birds on your birding forays and around
your yard? The robins by my front porch fledged last Saturday morning
and the house wren chicks burst out of the box on Sunday morning.
It's been interesting to compare the two nests during the past two
weeks.

Interestingly, the wrens were noisier than the robins. I suspect
there were between 5 and 8 wren chicks compared to two robins so that
likely explains some of it. I never heard the robin chicks unless I
was on the front porch, but I could hear the wren chicks everywhere in
the yard and even in the house. One of the wren chicks was NEVER
quiet -- it did a little cluck constantly. I tried to discern if the
adults make some little call as they approach the box with a bug
because the noise from inside would explode before they got to the box
-- how did the kids know food was on the way?

The adult wrens were into the box every couple minutes whereas the
robin adults seemed to come about every 5 minutes -- once again the
number of hungry mouths would account for that. I observed the adult
wrens leaving the box with a fecal sac quite often (not every trip)
and it was interesting to see them take it to a branch and wipe if off
their bill -- I always assumed they would just drop it as they flew
off. Neither set of parents went very far in search of food. The
robins cleaned out the mulberry tree which is 15 feet from the nest.
The wrens did most of their gleaning in my perennial beds -- wonder
how many bugs they harvested? I have to say I admire their energy
especially on the hot, humid days!

I suspected the wrens were close to fledgling on Saturday afternoon
based on past experience -- the volume goes up as the chicks get
older. I decided to get up at dawn on Sunday to see if I could catch
them leaving the box. I did get up at dawn but they had already
left. Color me disappointed! When did they leave? Oh well, maybe
next time. The male is already singing to lure his gal back to the
box to start a second brood. Talk about a long hot summer!!

The next Bird Walk at the Glen is Saturday, July 10 from 8 to 9:30
a.m. The bird list for June at Penitentiary Glen has all the usual
suspects and this summer series of walks is a good way for newer bird
watchers to practice their binocular spotting skills!

Enjoy the birds in your yard!!

Mary Huey
Interpretive Naturalist
Lake Metroparks
mh...@lakemetroparks.com