Wrens Are Gone

A couple of days after the last photo of the wren's nest was taken, Jo checked the nest and discovered that the chicks had disappeared. I didn't think they were old enough to fledge, but I always think chicks fledge too soon. A day went by without either of us seeing anything of the wrens. However, the following day, Jo saw an adult and three chicks on the porch. She wasn't able to get a photo because I had the camera out in the garden taking pictures of bugs.

I don't really know what was going on. It's possible that something (like a black snake) frightened the female wren into getting her chicks out of the nest a little too soon. I've watched a mama wren vacate a nest because of a snake in the past. The four wrens could have found a safe place to hide on or around the porch for a day, I reckon. Heaven knows there is enough stuff in that area for the wrens to have found a safe nook or cranny. I really don't know what happened, but Jo said the baby birds that she saw could fly and that's the important requirement for fledging.

Just because the wrens are gone doesn't mean that there are no nesting birds on our porch. There's a phoebe with eggs in a nest on top of the window frame across the porch from where the wrens were. This is the phoebe's second brood of this summer in that nest. (I assume it's the same bird.) We also had a brood of phoebes in early spring in a nest above the steps down to the basement.

Wrens Are Gone