I put ice cubes in the hummingbird feeder!
Why?
When I was cleaning it, the nectar I poured out was really hot and I figured it just might burn those tiny hummingbird tongues.
Can’t have that!
Speaking of birds, we have had fun with a pair of Carolina wrens this summer. They are very noisy, very friendly, active, and messy little birds. We like them a lot and have encouraged them to nest in our YARD with two very nice bird houses …
but one very determined pair had other ideas. They seemed to want to be near us. In our sunroom, to be exact. Over a couple days we removed several nest starts, hoping to encourage them to build elsewhere. Then one afternoon we came home to …
a done deal!
I didn’t get a picture, but there was a jacket slung over my bike handlebars and tucked inside it was a completed nest. Inside the nest were …
Yes, four little spotted eggs, each the size of my fingernail!
They had us! It was too late take it down this time.
What to do?
I carefully removed the very sloppy, loosely constructed nest from the jacket and placed it in a small wicker basket I hung on my handlebars. We were surprised when mama wren came right back to the nest as if nothing had changed and settled in. From then on we gave over all use of the sunroom to the wrens and had to leave all four sliding glass doors open night and day.
We have to walk through the sunroom a dozen times a day to get in and out of the house but it didn’t seem to faze the wren parents in the least. In 13 days the eggs hatched.
Feathers grew.
Then one morning 12 days later we came out and the babies were gone. They had somehow made their way out of the nest, out of the sunroom doors, and were hanging out in the azalea bushes, being shepherded and fed by their excited parents.
Carolina wrens are monogamous, mate for life, and raise up to three broods a year. Ours have apparently sought a change of scenery for their next family. We miss them but we are glad to have our sunroom back.
