Do you MIND?!!

Meet Troglodytes aedon, the common House Wren. This tiny bird is a summer resident in our area, but they breed from the tip of south America all the way into central Canada, and throughout the United States. I hadn't seen them yet this summer, even though they were already constructing a nest in early May last year. So you can imagine my delight when I was at my desk at a little after 6 this morning and heard the unmistakable sound of house wrens outside my window! The two were busy inspecting the nest box (same one they used last year) with him alternating between Singing from the branches of the birch tree, and scolding as he seems to be in this shot. Meanwhile, the Mrs spent a lot of time inspecting the nest box. I had to leave a little after 8 and they were still at it.

An interesting house wren factoid - the male does all the preliminary construction of the nest, and he may build up to 10 nests for the female to inspect. Once she's approved the nest, she will finish constructing it by adding soft materials to the stick nest that he has built. They will nest in all kinds of cavities, including old cans, flower pots, baskets and even old boots. And they will vigorously defend their nests as many a hapless gardener has learned the hard way, getting buzzed by a tiny, enraged bird!

It does not appear that this bird has been submitted yet for the Blip Big Year, either!

I went on a 4 hour hike this morning with the Audubon group which was great fun, as always. It was quite chilly today, and this morning the temps were in the 40s so we did not see as many butterflies as we'd hoped for. We did, however, see several Eastern Tailed Blues (male pictured here) as well as 20 or so American Coppers. Both species are very tiny and usually hard to photograph because they seldom land for long. The cooler temps worked to our advantage. I also saw my first ever Prairie Warbler - unfortunately, he was way up in the trees and I only had the little Coolpix with me, so not a great shot. But if you'd like to see him, here is a heavily cropped version to give you a flavor of his extraordinary color

Thanks for the lovely comments on my Mother's Day Blip. She's a pretty special woman!

I am engaged with an ongoing battled with the raccoons who are raiding my feeders and drinking the hummingbird nectar every night! Saturday night, one of them brought down the clothesline I have to keep the feeders out of bear reach - the crafty little thing shinnied out the rope, bending the supporting metal pole right over. I'm trying a new baffle tonight - we'll see if it works. The only thing they haven't been able to get to so far is my window-mounted feeders ... yet!

Happy Monday!

xxoo
Debbi