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<\/p>\nLast week on our Montana camping trip the House Wrens were incredibly persistent when trying to get long or awkwardly-shaped twigs into the nest holes in the aspen.\u00a0 The holes (there were five of them)\u00a0had apparently been excavated by the Williamson’s Sapsuckers I reported on in yesterday’s post.\u00a0 The nest tree was in a National Forest\u00a0at an elevation of almost exactly 7000 feet which surprised me a little with this species but subsequent research indicates that in the west their breeding range extends up to elevations of almost 10,000 feet.<\/p>\n
On the first day I photographed the wrens there were at least four of them buzzing around several of the holes as they delivered nesting material and competed with each other and with Tree Swallows for nesting sites.\u00a0 By the second day one pair had apparently settled on this hole for the nest.\u00a0 They were quite industrious (even ingenious) in their efforts to get long sticks and twigs (usually held side-ways in their beaks in the beginning) into\u00a0the nest cavity.<\/p>\n
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1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Typically they would land at the entrance to the cavity with the stick and attempt to muscle it through the hole.\u00a0which usually\u00a0didn’t work.\u00a0 Then they would manipulate the angle of the twig in their beak until it did.\u00a0 Only occasionally did I see one of them abandon the attempt by deliberately dropping the stick – they were relentless in their efforts.<\/p>\n This\u00a0wren had landed at the entrance and attempted to push the stick into the hole, which didn’t immediately work so here the bird has taken flight as it attempts to force it into the hole.\u00a0 If I remember correctly the wren eventually got the twig into the hole by turning it sideways first, which\u00a0was their usual, eventual strategy.<\/p>\n Even though all this activity was exciting to watch it was\u00a0very difficult to photograph well for a variety of reasons, including the fact that the wrens nearly always had their backs to me as they approached and landed at the holes.\u00a0 I had to\u00a0get lucky to\u00a0have any light in the eye at all.\u00a0 I’m sure I’ll be posting more images of these birds sometime down the road but this\u00a0shot was one of my favorites from those two incredible mornings.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n Note:\u00a0 This nest tree was actually just over the Montana border in Idaho.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last week on our Montana camping trip the House Wrens were incredibly persistent when trying to get long or awkwardly-shaped twigs into the nest holes in the aspen.<\/p>\n