In my yard, the apple tree and the house wren nest box are forever linked, and not just because until two years ago the box was in that tree. From late June into July, both are busy with young. In the tree's case, that means a lot of ripe, edible apples drawing squirrels, insects and birds. For the birds, it means the parent wrens taking turns flying to the box to feed their chicks.
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| House wren feeding young, 2022 (Margo D. Beller) |
For the past two weeks, the young - two? three? Can't be much more in that small box - have grown. I know this because now when a wren comes to the box, the sounds of begging are loud enough for me to hear without opening a porch window. The parent can't get inside. It flies to the opening and whichever chick has muscled its way to the front gets the insect meal.
As for the old tree, last year there was so much rain we had an abundance of apples, so many I had to sort what I picked (or picked up when the squirrels dropped them so the deer didn't get any) and put the ones I knew I wouldn't use in a corner of the yard for the critters. Even then I made several quarts of apple sauce. This year, either because there has been less rain or the squirrels took advantage of my being away for five days on vacation, there have been fewer apples in a good condition to use, enough for one pail rather than my larger apple basket. I intend to use what I have and leave none for the critters. If I'm lucky, by the time I cut off the bad parts and cook the good ones, I'll get one quart out of all of them.
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| Two of the last apples of 2022. A squirrel later got one of them. (Margo D. Beller) |
Some years, things get out of whack between the nesting and the fruiting. There have been years when the squirrels started going into the tree earlier, in mid-June, for the juicy apples because we were in an unusually hot stretch. In those years I would be concerned the squirrels would disturb the wren sitting on eggs and the tree would survive the drought. There have been other years when the young wrens have fledged before apples were ready to be picked. Some years the tree would not have many flowers in the spring, and that would be a year when I would not be making much apple sauce, if at all.
It was during a plentiful year that I had to use an extension pole to knock down apples if I wanted to use any, thus disturbing the wrens as much as the squirrels. That was when I decided to move the nest box to the dogwood on the other side of the yard, which also allowed me to watch the wren activity more easily.
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| (Margo D. Beller) |
Any day now I expect to bring my morning coffee to the porch and see no feeding and hear no begging. Every so often I've been hearing one of the parents calling from a shrub, trying to draw out its young. At the moment they are, like a lot of young nowadays, happy to stay at home. Why go out when Mom or Dad brings me what I need?
However, unlike their human counterparts, the wrens' brains are hardwired to continue the species. At some point instinct will kick in and they will leave box, learn how to fly and feed themselves, and then leave in late fall for their winter grounds. If they survive the trip, they'll fly north next spring to pair up, find a suitable nesting spot, mate and make more young.
As usual, I hope at least two of them will be in my yard.
