Recycled Nest

A new pair of housewrens frequents the rhombus house. I wonder if it is the same pair I watched from late April through early June--- from the building of the nest through the day of the fledge. Could be same pair, or same male w/new female, or same female w/ new male---OR---could it be a pair from the sixsome I watched grow up? Don't know if birds are incestuous, or how soon after hatching they breed. Once again, a degree in ornithology would be useful. Do they keep breeding through the summer? I would have thought it too hot by now.

Before internet access, I was willing to let my curious wonderings go unsatisfied. No more. Now, because so many questions can be answered for the simple act of typing them, I'm impatient with not knowing what I want to. Must go in search of the answers to how soon they breed, if they keep it in the family, and how many broods they have per season.

Have lost track of the residential activity in the rhombus house. Judging from the sequence I observed in last cycle, this new pair is in the stage of feeding new hatchlings not yet vocal enough to be heard. Papa and Mama Small come and go with regularity and without a lot of caution.

I've missed my daily outsitting and am glad to be back. Losing the hornets nest was a punch in the stomach from which I am not fully recovered. Have had little spirit for energetic observation, but accomplished much indoors in the respite---most notably, the building of my website and making it active. Check it out at deborahkauffmanmiller.com.

Finished and mailed the 7th draft of WL to three publishers. While I wait for the rejection letters, I must get to work on another manuscript, so as not to let the creep set in---or the anxiety. Will revive Madame Swallow, a picture book ms, though for this round I know how much I don't know. These revisions will require much research. Too bad about not having that degree in ornithology . . .

Don't want to turn this into a blog about writing, though it will be tempting with a manuscript about birds. dkm

Home from Lake Junaluska/ Nestwatch Day 30

Have the housewrens gotten used to me, or are they unaware of me? The latter seems unlikely, but when I stood near the nest this morning, after six days away, to listen for nestling squall, Mama and Papa Small carried on with their work---in and out of their rhombus shaped house with morsels in their beaks. Constant activity now. They appear not to mind my presence. Still, I hear no tiny voices from inside the box.

Checking earlier entries I see that I first heard the brown-headed nuthatches only four days before first fledge. I fear I will miss the houswrens fledging while at the fish camp next week. dkm

No Crying They Yet Make

Question of the day: Are they hatched yet? By the day's count methinks they must be, but the adult that can only be Mama Housewren still enters the house and stays for long periods, maybe ten minutes, as if sitting on eggs. Need x-ray vision into house or ornithology degree to know for sure. She also flies out and stays gone for about 5 minutes at a time. Just saw her return with a morsel of some kind in her beak, entered with it and stayed inside, leading me to believe she must be feeding new hatchlings. Observed same scenario several times during today's hour. Can't yet hear their tiny cries though. Could she be bringing her own food, while still keeping eggs warm? More likely, they are hatched and too tiny to cry, yet featherless enough to need her warm cover. Time will tell.

Mr. Housewren, while not visiting the house, seems more present today than he has been so far. He flits from branch to nearby dogwood branch, shaking out his bubbly song. Has he given up on attracting her to house #2? Today he stays nearer house #1---sounding like he's biding his time---unlike yesterday when he was consumed with performing his aria atop the pole of the abandoned nuthatch house (#2).

New guess based on today's attention: he has been unsuccessful in attracting her to 2nd house b/c she's not ready to leave her first family. So he waits. Right or wrong, I'm peeved at him for chasing Saturday's bluebird from the house he only hoped for. Were it not for greedy feisty little housewren, might I be watching bluebirds build a nest in empty nuthatch house right now? dkm