a wren is a wren

I have a nest box for a wren in the center of my garden, and the happy couple has stuffed it with nesting material. Yesterday, a cardinal landed on the shepherd's hook that supports the box, and a wren poked his head out to look up and see what was going on. The cardinal looked quite surprised and flew off. This morning a robin made a futile attempt to discourage the wren. He bombarded the wren 5 or 6 times, but the wren treated it as a game, flitting through the chain link fence and leaving the robin, with its comparative bulk, fuming on the other side. All the while, the wren was singing, as if to show he wasn't taking this too seriously. After that, the robin gave up, and the wren returned to singing on the top of the nest box. I love seeing the side of nature that the books and experts don't tell you about!

Susan in Minneapolis

Cute story Susan. Share a picture if you can get one.

Susan, I agree - cute story and would love to see a photo.

I don't have a photo of the robin bombarding the wren, but I have a new story from this morning (also no photo; it happened in just a few seconds). One of the same wrens bombarded a squirrel who got too close to the nestbox. It looked like the wren delivered 3 hits to the squirrel as it ran away, although I can't imagine a wren could do much damage to a squirrel's hide. The wren ignores me and my dog, so apparently he has a good idea of who to worry about and who is not an enemy.

Susan in Minneapolis

Cute story!

We have some determined little wrens too. They keep trying to build nests in our garage and my husband keeps throwing them out - 4 last Sunday. We put some birdhouses outside so maybe they will take the hint.

Brenda