Attracting Wrens

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While writing to you, I’m distracted by activity outside.

There is a bird house on a post for the second year, and it looks like it will not attract an occupant this year. Either.

Some birds have perched on the roof but didn’t check out the inside.

There is nothing wrong with the little box. There is no issue with the size of the hole, but there is nothing scientific about it either. I think it is something like an inch and a half in diameter, which should satisfy most birds. Maybe too many.

I planned this house around what I learned about blue birds. The box faces an open field, and it is high enough off the ground to be higher than a snake could climb, but I don’t think snakes like crawling a slick post anyway.

This house replaces an old bird house that was attached to a pole that rotted away. That bird house had the front side gnawed away by squirrels who needed a larger front door. The roof rotted nearly away, but blue birds kept going back to it after squirrels abandoned it.

I wondered what the squirrels had in mind because that box was too close to the ground for them.

So what is wrong with this bird house? I read that they are supposed to face east with an open field. The box faces east, and it is mostly clear all the way to the river.

A few years ago I saw a line of fence posts with old shoes nailed to them. A guy had the idea to attract birds who would build nests in the old shoes. It worked for the guy featured in the magazine article but not for me.

I’ve had people ask why there are shoes nailed to trees around the house, but you’d think they could figure that out, but the birds never figured that out either. As near as I can tell, not one shoe has attracted a nesting bird.

Some of the nicest afternoons in Kansas I enjoyed on the front porch of my inlaws’ home. The memory is of wrens adding their song to the sound of the south wind through the grass.

Wren’s are tiny birds who make a lot of noise. They like a house with a small hole, which also discourages other birds from taking over the box. I’ve made bird houses that should satisfy the pickiest wren but no luck.

I’ve decorated a wren house, painted them up, tried to get into a wren’s head.

Maybe I’m over-thinking this thing. Wrens will build a nest from scratch in a hedge, in a tree at the top of porch columns. They sometimes build two nests the same year. But not for me.

For every hard and fast rule I’ve read about attracting wrens, I’ve seen variations that cancel them out. One book said the front should face south, another expert said a south facing house got too hot.

It’s beginning to get personal.

joenphillips@yahoo.com