The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge. We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns.
We invite you to note what you are seeing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below.
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June 29, 2019
Pacific Northwest
Heard a trilling in the bushes the other day and saw it was coming from a small tail-flicking brown bird. It was holding something in its beak, chirruping at the same time. No way to tell who it was at the time, through the branches of a twinberry shrub and hopping back and forth, but I took a few pics hoping to tell that way later.
Turns out it was a House Wren with some kind of bug.
Unlike our other wrens (Bewick’s, Marsh and Pacific), House Wrens are strictly summer birds here, arriving in early May, nesting and departing by September. While they’re here they feast on a “wide variety of insects and spiders, including beetles, caterpillars, earwigs, and daddy longlegs, as well as smaller numbers of more mobile insects such as flies, leafhoppers, and springtails. Also eats snail shells, probably for the calcium they contain and to provide grit for digestion.” (www.allaboutbirds.org/...).
House Wrens are cavity nesters and in the wild build nests tucked into tree crevices or old woodpecker holes. They also take well to human structures, not just nest boxes but in “farm machinery, fish creels, old boots, large pockets on coats hung on barn walls and crania of cow or moose skulls hung on walls (Bent 1948). Appears to strongly prefer boxes over natural cavities when both are available.” (birdsna.org/...). Incubation is two weeks, nestling stage three weeks.
We’re well into nesting season now. Last year I saw a nest box of wrens nearby fledge about this date.
I didn’t see a family in this particular nest box this year, but there are plenty of other good nesting sites in this woodsy shrubby neighborhood.
Might the Wren I saw a week ago have been calling to new fledglings about a bite to eat? And if so, is it mom or dad? Both parents feed the fledglings for two weeks after leaving the nest.
Take a look at the wren’s belly when facing this way:
The crease there looks like the opening to a brood patch (journeynorth.org/...), an area of highly vascularized bare skin that keeps eggs and nestlings warm during this time of year. Only female wrens incubate and brood. Only they have a brood patch. That’s why I think this is a mama wren calling or scouting for a youngster in this early fledged time of life.
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Cloudy this morning in the PNW islands after a cool showery day yesterday.
What’s the nature news in your neighborhood?
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