The chicks are growing bigger every day and accumulating more flight feathers. It's been hot here so the chicks have been crowded and hot, resting with their beaks open on the nest opening. It's now Day 11 and there's been a flurry of activity with the nest recently.
Yesterday I rode my bike to the farmer's market in town. When I returned home I was putting away groceries when I saw a huge black crow land on the hanging basket and start eying the nest! I rushed over to the door and banged on the glass making the crow fly off to the adjacent tree and then away. I inspected the nest and found it quite disheveled with the chicks cowering in the far back corner of the nest cavity. I poked around and to my horror discovered only four of the six chicks remained in the nest! I looked around under the nest to see if one had fallen or if there were feathers indicating an altercation, but there was not a trace to be found. It is reasonable to suspect the crow somehow discovered the nest and made a nice snack out of a couple of the wren chicks. Despite this being a classic example of the circle of life, I endeavored to not let the crow capture any more of the chicks for the remainder of the afternoon. This meant I couldn't lose sight of the nest for >30 seconds.
I was quite successful at this for a couple of hours, but then was meeting a couple of new friends at a bar to watch the soccer Champions League final. I hadn't seen the crow for a couple of hours but I didn't want to leave the chicks to fend for themselves for the remainder of the afternoon. The logical solution was to protect the nest in my absence with an impermeable shield:
Made of 1 pizza box lid and 4 twistie ties, it's surprisingly rigid and would be a pain for a crow to move. I stayed around for a bit to make sure the parents still fed the chicks with the shield up and then took off to the bar.
Happy with my defense mechanism I thoroughly enjoyed the soccer match and returned home to find the shield in place and no more chicks missing. All was well until this morning.
Lauren got up for work and went to make her customary check of the chicks before breakfast. She called me quickly that one of the chicks had fallen out of the nest! It luckily hadn't fallen 3 stories to the concrete below, but was somewhat wedged between the black cast iron railing and the screen. It was hanging onto the screen for dear life but luckily appeared healthy. It was a precarious situation as we had to slide the screen in order to attempt to rescue the chick. We also couldn't reach the chick after opening the screen an arm's thickness, so again it was pizza box to the rescue! With the bottom half of the box I was able to reach the chick, scoop underneath it, get it in the box, and then Lauren grabbed it. With a little encouragement it was helped back into the nest and was no worse the wear. Needless to say, there was no time for photography during this escapade.
This episode realized our worst fear, that as the chicks get closer to fledging, they will crowd the nest and might fall out. Clearly the chicks needed some human intervention. With some string, twistie ties, and the other half of the pizza box we fashioned a CFAD (chick falling assist device):
With the leaf debris on top it should cushion and house any chick long enough that we can put it back in the nest. At this point our neighbors definitely think we're weird. Luckily the huge tree helps to block the nest or our well-engineered devices from the prying eyes of the public (or apartment management).
Phew, after all this drama we're hoping the chicks have a low-key last couple of days of development. The parents are feeding them basically non-stop, which is simply impressive. Also cool was we saw the female wren fly away with a white sack in her mouth. Lauren had a hunch about it and confirmed that it was a fecal sac, common for this family of birds. It helps ensure the nest remains fairly tidy. This should be the last week of the chicks in the nest, so a lot will be happening.
All that's left is to post pictures from the last couple of days. Again, more pictures are here:
Stay tuned for future updates.
Yesterday I rode my bike to the farmer's market in town. When I returned home I was putting away groceries when I saw a huge black crow land on the hanging basket and start eying the nest! I rushed over to the door and banged on the glass making the crow fly off to the adjacent tree and then away. I inspected the nest and found it quite disheveled with the chicks cowering in the far back corner of the nest cavity. I poked around and to my horror discovered only four of the six chicks remained in the nest! I looked around under the nest to see if one had fallen or if there were feathers indicating an altercation, but there was not a trace to be found. It is reasonable to suspect the crow somehow discovered the nest and made a nice snack out of a couple of the wren chicks. Despite this being a classic example of the circle of life, I endeavored to not let the crow capture any more of the chicks for the remainder of the afternoon. This meant I couldn't lose sight of the nest for >30 seconds.
I was quite successful at this for a couple of hours, but then was meeting a couple of new friends at a bar to watch the soccer Champions League final. I hadn't seen the crow for a couple of hours but I didn't want to leave the chicks to fend for themselves for the remainder of the afternoon. The logical solution was to protect the nest in my absence with an impermeable shield:
Made of 1 pizza box lid and 4 twistie ties, it's surprisingly rigid and would be a pain for a crow to move. I stayed around for a bit to make sure the parents still fed the chicks with the shield up and then took off to the bar.
Happy with my defense mechanism I thoroughly enjoyed the soccer match and returned home to find the shield in place and no more chicks missing. All was well until this morning.
Lauren got up for work and went to make her customary check of the chicks before breakfast. She called me quickly that one of the chicks had fallen out of the nest! It luckily hadn't fallen 3 stories to the concrete below, but was somewhat wedged between the black cast iron railing and the screen. It was hanging onto the screen for dear life but luckily appeared healthy. It was a precarious situation as we had to slide the screen in order to attempt to rescue the chick. We also couldn't reach the chick after opening the screen an arm's thickness, so again it was pizza box to the rescue! With the bottom half of the box I was able to reach the chick, scoop underneath it, get it in the box, and then Lauren grabbed it. With a little encouragement it was helped back into the nest and was no worse the wear. Needless to say, there was no time for photography during this escapade.
This episode realized our worst fear, that as the chicks get closer to fledging, they will crowd the nest and might fall out. Clearly the chicks needed some human intervention. With some string, twistie ties, and the other half of the pizza box we fashioned a CFAD (chick falling assist device):
With the leaf debris on top it should cushion and house any chick long enough that we can put it back in the nest. At this point our neighbors definitely think we're weird. Luckily the huge tree helps to block the nest or our well-engineered devices from the prying eyes of the public (or apartment management).
Phew, after all this drama we're hoping the chicks have a low-key last couple of days of development. The parents are feeding them basically non-stop, which is simply impressive. Also cool was we saw the female wren fly away with a white sack in her mouth. Lauren had a hunch about it and confirmed that it was a fecal sac, common for this family of birds. It helps ensure the nest remains fairly tidy. This should be the last week of the chicks in the nest, so a lot will be happening.
All that's left is to post pictures from the last couple of days. Again, more pictures are here:
Stay tuned for future updates.
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