The House Wren Won

I give up!  I am pretty intense and for almost a month I have tried to discourage a House Wren from building a nest in one of our birdhouses.  I wrote about how she started removing Tree Swallow nesting material the moment the young swallows left.  That was about June 21 and here it is July 20 and she is still at it.  Never Trust a House Wren

Everyday I can hear her twittering away, daring me to remove the sticks she has put in the house, and everyday I open the house and remove everything.  Some days I do it three or four times.  She doesn't pay any attention to any other birdhouses on our property.  Right now we have five totally empty houses.

She just sits there nearby watching me and yelling at me.  It goes on from morning until night.

Yesterday I went out to check on things, and I was so happy to see very few sticks and pine needles in the house.  Instead I saw this little frog or toad.  He was just sitting in the house so content.  I thought as long as the house is occupied, then the wren would go away.  There was very little activity yesterday afternoon and evening.  I slept good last night knowing that this nasty little bird wasn't going to trouble us anymore.  I figured I had finally won.

Boy was I wrong.  As soon as I got up I heard the little creep.  A while later I thought I should go out and start all over again removing sticks.  I wasn't going to let a little tiny House Wren get the best of me.  I opened the house and "OH, NO".  There were eggs in the nest.  She snuck in and laid a couple eggs.  Now I had a decision to make.  I could break the law and remove the eggs,  (The House Wren is a native bird and it is illegal to kill them or remove eggs from the nest) or I could leave them and write about it.  I decided that it was a long hard fought battle but she won.  I concede.

Now the only hope I have is that the eggs aren't fertile and they will never hatch.  That is probably wishful thinking on my part because every now and then I see a little fella hanging around.  It's probably the baby daddy.  I guess you can't fool Mother Nature.