House Wren reproduction and the Big Sit

Well the House Wrens did it. A House Wren family with a couple of youngsters in tow was moving through the shrubs on the west side of the pond this morning. The male House Wren has been singing persistently since the middle of May mostly near a collection of little fairy-tale bird houses set up in a neighbor's garden. Whether or not these bird houses were ever used or not is a moot point; I never saw any traffic in and out of any of the the dozen or so boxes (not that I spend a lot of time monitoring them). But the wrens carried off a small brood somewhere somehow. The adult male now follows the brood -- or broodlet -- around and occasionally still sings that chattering song of his. But the most vocal of these birds -- possibly the adult female -- keeps up a loud buzzing as it leads its offspring on the eternal search for food. The youngsters are identifiable by the 'smile' mark at the base of the bill, a prominent feature left over from their days as nestlings (when the mark serves as an indication to the adults where to aim their food delivery). But these nestlings have turned into fledglings and are now moving around with their parents. In spite of its name, the House Wren, a common Pine Barrens nester, is less of a dooryard bird around here than the Carolina Wren but it does use nest boxes that most other birds seem to find too small.

I put two chairs by the pond in a spot that has a view of the pond and marsh but also over Weesuck Creek and out across Shinnecock Bay. Late afternoon on Sunday, the feature attraction was two high-flying Killdeer calling vociferously. Yesterday afternoon a Glossy Ibis came winging across the mouth of the creek and over the marsh. Better than watching television!

Eric Salzman