2004 Nest Box Cam
Carolina Wren
Carolina wrens nested in our yard for the first time this year. Their first brood was in the radiator cowling of an old Farmall tractor in a wagon shed. The second nest was in the hayloft of the barn. Both nests had horizontal entrances and were similarly constructed of twigs, grass, and a few leaves. When I discovered the first nest, the female was incubating and the male was continuing to bring nesting material, making repeated trips with mouthsful of rootlets and fine grass. The incubating female is the quietest of any species I have observed. She seldom even moved her head and sometimes didn't even appear to be breathing. The horizontal entrance gives an unusual and more personal view of the incubating female, although, sometimes, she would draw back into the nest and all that would be visible would be the side of her head and one eye - never seeming to blink.
The young leave the nest before they can fly well, or, perhaps, at all. The fledglings inside the barn were crawling and hopping all over at least one day before they flew. I didn't notice this in the first nesting, but may have missed it.
The first nest in the tractor fan shroud.
fledgling on a barn window 40 ft from the second nest.
The male leaving the nest
The tripod mounted camera.
The camera at the tractor nest.
The following still photos are taken from a single frame of video from the vhs tapes. This process results in a substantial loss of quality compared to the original camera image and vhs tape.
female on the nest - typical view of one eye
young in nest
© 2004, American Artifacts and Richard Van Vleck, Taneytown, Maryland.
