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Bird Watching: Winter Bird House Use, 1 by 3gardeners

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Subject: Winter Bird House Use

Forum: Bird Watching

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Photo of Winter Bird House Use
3gardeners wrote:
My son built a bird house this past spring out of scrap wood. Since it wasn't built to any specific dimensions and had a rather large whole, I didn't really expect anyone to take up residence. I hung it rather low, on a fence post, about 5 feet from out sunroom windows in a 3ft deep flower bed, so that we could admire it. Low and behold, my lone Carolina Wren, whom I've loved for years, found a girlfriend and started a family in that birdhouse! We have a couple of neighborhood cats that use my yard as a hunting ground so as the babies got a bit older, I built a barricade around the area so that when they left the nest, they would have an area large enough to hop around and still be able to fly away. I watched and watched, and saw them standing on the edge one day... and then, as luck would have it, I missed them actually taking off. :-( Anyway, there were no piles of feathers and my yard had several Carolina Wrens this summer, so I think the endeavor was successful!

My point really is this. I read somewhere that Carolina Wrens sometimes return to there nest and over winter in them. So I left the nest in the box. But I haven't seen any activity. Should I go ahead and remove the nest so that if anyone is interested, they can spend the nights in there?