Thursday, June 21, 2012

Wren's Nest and Osprey-Cam

 When we got back from our trip to England, our son had taken care of the plants inside and outside.  As he was watering one of the hanging baskets of red impatients, he was surprised to see a small brown eye warily looking up at him.  It was a Carolina wren.  These birds will nest in some of the funniest places...sometimes, they will build a nest in a mailbox, a bag of nails, or in a hanging basket of flowers!  Instead of throwing away an old chair, I placed one hanging basket in the broken seat of the chair and the other one hanging off the back of the chair, and placed it outside our kitchen window. Therefore, this nest is just outside our window!  (Wren kitchen-cam)
  There, can you see the nest?  Of course not, it is perfectly camouflaged!  It is just in the middle of this pot just underneath the flowers.  Now, this is tricky...we have to water it just enough to keep this plant alive, but not so much that we want to make it too wet for the eggs!  It was really hot today, and when I came home from work, it was in a serious wilt so I had to water it...hopefully, the eggs will be okay.  I have read that the eggs are supposed to hatch in 14 days after they have been laid, so that must mean that it will be any day now...


 Richard took these photos of the Carolina wren before we went to England.   It is an incredibly sweet little bird, it has a squarish sort of tail that flicks up and down and eats insects as it quickly flits about in the garden. The song of this bird is so very loud for its size!  I remember reading somewhere (and this might not be true but it should be) that the native American name for it meant "little bird with a big voice"...

Richard and I love our birds and we like to support the Audubon Society.  We received an email from them telling us that that they have a web-cam set up on an osprey nest at Hog Island, Maine.  We have spent some time this afternoon watching the osprey feeding fish to their nestlings!  If you would like to see this, go to their website at www.audubon.org   and once you are there, you should see where to click on for the live osprey-cam.   It says that the best viewing is from 7AM-8PM Eastern standard time for the USA.   We saw an osprey at Arabia Lake earlier this year and were amazed by the size of this bird and the large wingspan which was obvious even from a good distance away.  From this live web-cam you can really see how big the wings and beak and claws really are...and you can see this also on the baby ospreys!  Please let me know if you are able to see these magnificent creatures and what you think about them. 

Hopefully, we will have baby wrens soon...I will let you know!

26 comments:

  1. Very exciting! I hope all the eggs hatch and you get to watch the baby birds grow up.

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  2. Yes, hopefully the eggs will hatch soon and the baby wrens will enjoy a good "childhood" in their beautiful flowery nest!
    There's plenty of birds here to watch, and I have observed a blackbird feeding its young in the cherry tree a few times; not in the nest anymore but sitting on a branch and waiting for its parents to have dinner ready :-)

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    1. We have had baby cardinals and baby tufties but how exciting for us to have these eggs right outside our window? Yay! Hope to see the baby wrens soon.

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  3. I'm a Tennessee girl who also loves England. I have a post about a Carolina Wren pair that built a nest in my GRILL! Read about our adventures! I'm always amazed at the parallel lives that I find in this world of blogging. I love reading your blog and find we have a lot in common:-)

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    1. Dear Jeanette,
      We have a LOT in common! So happy that you found me in the wonderland of blogland, I think that was your expression? You have a great blog and I think that we will be great friends! :-)
      Come back for wren updates!
      Love,
      Kay

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  4. I was able to view the little osprey family - the babies are so ugly, they're cute! Wish I could say the same for mama, lol! I sure hope you'll be able to share pics of the baby wrens once they hatch :)

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    1. Dear Jane,
      Their wings and feet are so big, they can hardly move!
      They are so funny to watch!
      You know Richard will try to get photos of the baby wrens for you!

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  5. It will be fun watching this little family. They do look like sweet birds.

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    1. Dear Tracey,
      They are the sweetest birds! They remind me of the movements of an English robin...another bird that I truly love!

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  6. I loved seeing the osprey nest! Hope your little wren eggs hatch and you get to see the little babies soon!

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    1. I tried to leave a comment on the Audubon site but could NOT figure out how to do it!
      Hopefully, you will see photos of baby wrens soon!

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  7. I also get the Audobon emails and was fascinated by the osprey cam. I love the wren nest ~ my friend had a bird make a nest inside her BBQ grill. She asked me what to do and I begged her just to leave it. The eggs looked exactly like yours and the nest looked pretty similar too. It didn't take long for the eggs to hatch and the babies to fly off. I'm thinking now that it may have been a wren. Will try to send you a photo of the nest and one of the eggs that didn't make it ~ once we get back home.... Can't wait to see what happens to your nest! Hope you're surviving the heat!

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    1. Dear Audrey,
      The heat is BRUTAL and we have a long summer ahead of us! Oh well!
      I was so surprised to read your comment just after I had read the same thing on Jeannette's blog,(the wren on the grill) and then I saw that you found her too! Isn't it funny? So happy to meet such nice people on here!
      I LOVE watching the osprey-cam! I fancy myself a female version of Sir David Attenborough!

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  8. Sweet! How exciting, Kay. I hope they all do okay. And it'll be so much fun to watch all this. Take lots of photos along the way. They do seem to choose the strangest places to build nests. A hanging basket, of all things!

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    1. Dear Martha,
      We are just thankful that our son noticed the bird with all the watering he had to do while we were away!
      But he loves the birds as much as we do!
      How is your garden growing? I'll bet you are busy!

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  9. How wonderful that you take the nestlings into consideration when figuring out how to water your flowers! The mama doesn't know it, but she is in friendly territory.

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    1. Dear Mimi,
      We just hope so much that we are being careful enough...keeping our fingers crossed for the eggs!

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  10. oh my gosh! how exciting! and those pics of the bird are so beautiful:)

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    1. Oh, thank you! My husband took those photos and I was excited he got such great shots of the Carolina wren.
      So happy to see your comment, please visit me again!

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  11. This is so much fun to see. It's amazing how they build their nests in those strange places. It could be a problem in Hawaii, but it must be fun in Georgia.

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    1. Hey Kay!
      Isn't the wren the sweetest little thing!
      I hope to see the babies soon. Did you get a chance to see the Opsrey-cam? We are enjoying it so much!

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  12. Like your last nest actually most -so mysterious:) and I LOVE your header!

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    1. Thank you! My husband takes most of the photos, but if one is out of focus or missing the top of someone's head, that would be mine!
      And the header photo is of the pier from Eastbourne, England. It was hard for us because we wanted to stay at the seafront the whole time, can you blame us?

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  13. The English Wren also has a very loud voice for its size. And yet when it wants to skulk around the shrubbery it does so in a way that makes it almost impossible to find. I think one may be nesting in our garden at the moment but haven't fathomed out where yet.

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    1. I have only seen drawings of the English wren, I don't remember ever seeing one there...it must be because it likes to skulk around in the shrubbery!
      We think the birds have hatched now, the mother bird keeps flying in with big fat insects and she looks very bedraggled.

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