Just a sweet little boston fern hanging on the back porch, right? NOT!!!! Lookit what I found deep inside it!!! This is at Ed's house. Saw it right before I was leaving as I was watering the plants. I'm really curious to see what else has happened when I head back over for dinner tonight. Will there be more eggs? Will the mama bird be incubating them or still laying? It is making the watering of the fern a challenge!
my oh my... I feel sorry for you if it is a carolina wren. they will drive you nuts with their singing... non stop dawn to dark.
How nice is that! That fern was a good idea. I hope that you can somehow keep that fern moist but yet not cool the eggs off. It'll be a challenge...as you said.
I could live with them singing 24/7 if the wren decided to make a nest around my house. This is an exciting thread!
Ronni, get that odd ball egg out of there and throw it away. It is a cowbird egg and will hatch before the other two (or all the wren chicks). as it gets bigger than they are faster it will starve them to death and the wren won't have any wren chicks to raise. only that nasty cowbird fledgling. http://nestwatch.org/learn/general-bird-nest-info/brown-headed-cowbirds/
Ah jeez! Carolyn you're telling me the same thing as a couple of my irl bird-knowledgeable friends are telling me. It presents me with an ethical/moral dilemma because as much as I want to protect the eggs that are rightfully in the nest, I do NOT want to contribute to the death of a living thing. It is seriously a problem for me, and I feel guilt for whichever choice I make.
then have ed/somebodyelse do it. The cowbird NEVER sits on a nest and rears its brood it is called a parasite bird.. Kind of like someone giving you a new baby and as it grows it consumes so much of your time and energy you neglect the others you have and they die. I have become rather brutal in my latter years. I used to not be able to do that either, but I have decided the sparrows are not welcome in the bluebird boxes. I tear out the nests and eggs as I find them. I would even shoot the cowbirds if I had a bb gun.
Yeah, I really get that. I've done a bunch of research. Man, nature can be just BRUTAL sometimes, y'know???
See, I was going to say the other egg is similar to what a cuckoo egg looks like here in dunnock nests, it is just so different to the little blue eggs. Good luck whatever you decide.
