Nestbox news: What a whirlwind!
The last couple of days have been a whirlwind, mostly for the Wren babies. At some point yesterday I noticed the babies were constantly screaming but I did not see a parent feeding them. I went through the videos and did not see them there. As I was doing yard work I kept an eye on things. Then in late afternoon, a baby fell out of the box. I contacted a rehabber for advice and eventually took them all out of there. I put them in a box with tissue while I tried to figure out where to bring them. There are few rehabbers in the area and I also heard that due to Avian flu, many are not taking birds in at this time. Wild Wings in Detroit agreed to take them, all I needed was a ride. (They accept donations.) Now I did have a camera team from Local 4 over here today, and since they went back to Detroit anyways, they agreed to bring them in. I am so glad they are safe now and super thankful for the wonderful Local 4 team. This was a turbulent couple of hours. Local 4 came for a little segment that will air in September, I will let you know closer to the date.
In other news, Gayle laid her second egg this morning. The Wren guard is on even though I am not sure I still need it with the adult wrens gone. I have no idea what happened to them, they never returned to the box.
Video: The House Wren has been diligently constructing the nest,
and I am so intrigued by witnessing the whole process. He builds something like a little fortress, with ladders going all the way down to the nest. Here, you can see him adding spider egg sacs. There are several theories about why they do it, one is that the spiders will help with mite control, another that they are purely ornamental. I have decided to call him Sir Corleone because "Lion Heart", "cor leonis" is one of the names that has been attributed to these fierce tiny birds in the past. He is a strong singer, and I am excited to see if he can attract a female.
Finally,
Finally, a Hummingbird on camera today! And a male to boot. They are so different this year. Very few, and the ones that I do see are super skittish. They go to a feeder, hover and check and then take off. We have some flowers but not a ton this year, things are still emerging, so I don't know what is going on. I am happy to see them every now and then but this is nowhere near previous years. Second pic I think is a House Wren. They seem to think the camera boxes are nestboxes 😂
