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Re: nest failure probably from cold weather



Ginger,

Thanks for the very helpful reply...your bottle sounds
like mine exactly...can't recall which one, but i know
i bought it thru a catalog. Can't wait to try a new
location up under the eaves...

You sound experienced with bird houses...if you
wouldn't mind another question...we had three bird
houses that we bought from a ranger at a Va. park who
built them out of scrap wood...the birds loved these
and they were always used time after time...finally
they began to rot and we replaced them last yr. with
new ones (alas, the ranger retired and we couldn't
find him). We bought the new ones from the visitor
center at Pea Island so the money would go to a good
cause (we don't have time for craft building). This is
the 2nd yr. the new boxes (in the same locations) have
been rejected...no one wants these new wooden boxes
and the dimensions seem correct.

Any ideas?

thanks,


Happy spring,
linda

--- Ginger Travis <gtravis@email.unc.edu> wrote:
> hey, linda! thanks for the nice words.
> yes, the wrens really love a propane tank!
> on the bird bottle, first, is it large enough? i got
> mine from
> williamburg but i once saw some more decorative ones
> in a local bird
> store, and those bottles were too small. you could
> see they'd been made
> in imitation, but made smaller. i can't tell you the
> dimensions, but
> i'll measure if it's important. the williamsburg
> reproduction bottles
> have a clear glaze on them, showing the terra
> cotta-colored clay
> beneath. 
> my bottles hang on nails driven into the house
> siding fairly high up
> under the eaves. the bottles have a cutout on the
> bottom -- you slide
> the bottle over the nail. so the bottle is
> horizontal with its bottom
> right up against the house. there are 2 little holes
> beneath the mouth
> to thread a small stick through for a perch at the
> mouth of the bottle.
> i used to have 3 bottles. 2 were used all the time
> and one never used at
> all. the bottle on the north side of my house and
> the one on the
> southeast side were preferred; the one on the west
> side, never. the one
> on the southeast side is over my deck, but the birds
> tolerate the coming
> and going of me and my dog.
> i would say a lattice is not such a good place
> because it's easily
> climbed by snakes. i'd say try hanging the bottle
> right up against your
> house in a protected spot. 
> does this help?
> cheers!
> ginger 
> 
> Ward Linda wrote:
> > 
> > Hi Ginger,
> > 
> > Interested in your pottery bird bottle because we
> have
> > one, but after two years, it's never been used.
> > 
> > can you provide more details about placement of
> yours:
> > is it attached to the siding of your house, or
> how?
> > Maybe our problem is, we have it attached to some
> > latticework that is a support for a carolina
> jasmine
> > vine....we selected that site because it's next to
> a
> > propane gas tank that the wrens have insisted (yr.
> > after yr.) on nesting in (there's a cavity area on
> top
> > of the tank). This yr., they built a next in an
> old
> > ceramic pitcher that has a crack in it that i keep
> on
> > my back porch (picked it up in a thrift shop but
> > didn't know it leaked, couldn't bring myself to
> throw
> > it away, it was too pretty)....they immediately
> > abandoned that nest probably because of constant
> > people traffic on and off the porch. Don't know
> where
> > they're nesting now....where is best site for
> pottery
> > bottle?
> > 
> > thanks, i always enjoy your postings,
> > 
> > linda
> > --- Ginger Travis <gtravis@email.unc.edu> wrote:
> > > Hello, all. On Sunday, 4/13, I watched a pair of
> > > Carolina Wrens busily
> > > finishing up a nest in a pottery bird bottle on
> the
> > > southeast side of my
> > > house. I was surprised because I hadn't seen
> > > fledglings from another
> > > nest on the north side of my house that the
> wrens
> > > occupied in late March
> > > and early April. When I checked the north nest I
> > > found 4 dead
> > > featherless chicks inside. Their eyes were
> closed.
> > > There was a slight
> > > odor. I am guessing the chicks died during that
> > > intense Monday-Friday
> > > cold wave last week.
> > > I removed the failed nest. The nest lining
> consisted
> > > of long
> > > light-colored hairs that I think came from one
> of my
> > > dogs; two small
> > > feathers, one of which looked like it might have
> > > come from a Mourning
> > > Dove; two small pieces of what looked like
> > > cellophane (in lieu of
> > > snakeskin?); and, most interesting, a hunk of
> hair
> > > that was
> > > brindle-colored on the shaft (black and tan) and
> > > light gray or
> > > white-tipped. Racoon? Or what? The loss of this
> hunk
> > > of hair must have
> > > been painful to the creature that donated it, if
> it
> > > was alive! I have
> > > read on this list about titmice plucking hair
> from
> > > sleeping raccoons. Do
> > > wrens do the same?
> > > Last summer in the drought the wrens produced
> only 2
> > > broods in my yard,
> > > one early and one late -- the lowest number
> since
> > > I've paid attention. I
> > > usually see about 3 broods right around my
> house,
> > > and in the summer of
> > > 2001 I believe there were 4 broods. That year I
> > > found I could get wrens
> > > to renest in the same structure if I cleaned out
> the
> > > old nest
> > > immediately after chicks fledged. The adults
> would
> > > begin the next nest
> > > in the same structure about one week later. In a
> > > good year one bird
> > > bottle is a wren factory!
> > > Ginger Travis
> > > Orange Co., N.C.
> > 
> > =====
> > --Linda Jeannette Ward
> > --P.O. Box 231
> > --Coinjock, N.C. 27923
> > --U.S.A.
> > --tankapoet@yahoo.com
> > 
> > __________________________________________________
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=====
--Linda Jeannette Ward
--P.O. Box 231
--Coinjock, N.C. 27923
--U.S.A.
--tankapoet@yahoo.com

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