I Lost the House Wren Battle, But I Won the War

I have written two other stories about the darn house wrens that taunt me.  On June 22, 2013 I wrote http://cabincountess.blogspot.com/2013/06/never-trust-house-wren.html and I wrote about the taunting in the blog on July 20, 2013 called http://cabincountess.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-house-wren-won.html

Throughout the years, this little bird has driven me crazy.

A couple days after I wrote the blog, another egg appeared which made four total.  The mama Wren flitted around never spending a lot of time sitting on the eggs.  Maybe she did at night, but most of the day she sat in the trees and sang.  Last week I saw her with a grub in her mouth, and I thought that the eggs had hatched and she was feeding the young.  At this point, her voice changed and she sounded like she had a sore throat.  It was more of a growl than a trill.  Then a couple days ago, I didn't see her at all.  Once I saw her trying to get into the back of the house and was clearly confused.  So yesterday I decided to look and see what was going on.  Of the four eggs, two were missing, one was unhatched and a newly hatched baby was dead.  I don't know what happened.  As much as I dislike this bird and didn't want it to use the birdhouse, it was sad to see the dead bird.  I cleaned out the house and will disinfect it so it's ready for next spring.

Sometimes you lose the battle but you win the war.