I wrote in an earlier blog of my experiences with a pair of Wrens that busily went about their business of building a nest, laying a couple of eggs and finally spending their time in trying to raise their chicks. Read the blog. They did all of this no more than 10 feet away from where I was busy tearing up the deck and then repairing the septic system that was underneath it. Unfortunately, this story does not have a happy ending as one morning when I noticed how quiet it was and peeked into the nest which incidentally, was in a pair of waders that I had hung up, I found a large tree snake that had crawled up onto the patio table and then up the waders and had eaten the two babies. The adult birds were in the trees above me chirping away like mad either at me or at the snake or both. Anyway, the end of that story was in me carrying the snake further down the garden and releasing it to live another day. At the same time, I removed the waders so as not to tempt the Wrens to re-use that particular nest.

About three weeks ago, I noticed a pair of Wrens building a nest in one of my wide brimmed hats that I have hanging up outside my back door. This nest is no more than two feet away from me when I use the door to go in and out and I wondered how the Wrens and I were going to share the space. It turns out that they chose to ignore me while they were taking turns to sit on the eggs of which again, there are two and now they are feeding their babies, they wait for me to move away before they approach the nest. I can see them on the bird feeder that I built patiently awaiting for me to move so I hurry out so as to give them their space.

I have peeked in the nest a couple of time, once when one of the birds was sitting on the eggs as I startled it and it flew out and I had to leave the back light on for it to find its way back that evening . Must not have done any damage as the eggs both hatched. Now as I glance in on my way into the house, all I can see are the two little birds with their beaks wide open as they beg for food. They make a lot of noise when either of the parent birds are near as they clamor to be fed.

Even as I write this, the parent birds a hustling back and forth each with something in their beak to feed their hungry babies. I spent some time watching and it occurred to me that their trips were not as frequent with food as the first pair of birds. I think that food is not as plentiful now that things have warmed up as it was when I was working on the septic system which was a couple of months ago. The parent birds are having to work a lot harder to find food.

I snuck another look inside the nest and one of the babies was getting adventurous and was climbing out onto the brim of the hat. It just sat there as we looked at each other but hustled back inside when the parent bird came back.

The quality of the pictures are not the best. There is so much yellow around, I couldn’t get it out of the shot. Obviously, this is an unfinished story and there will be a part 2 to report on the babies progress hopefully up to when they learn to fly. Stay posted