Wren Nesting in Chair

by B & P VDB
(Gladwyne, PA, USA)

We live in a house that sits high in the trees, so we get bird activity close to the house on a regular basis, but this is a bit too much! :)

Since we moved here 5 years ago, we have maintained bird feeders from the overhanging roof that provides shade to our deck.

We've got sunflower seeds for the cardinals, blue jays, woodpeckers, titmouses (titmice?), chickadees and nuthatches.

For the finches, we have a nyer seed bag and for the hummingbirds we have a nectar feeder that sits on the other end of the deck.

Anyway, having the two seed feeders over our deck produces quite a bit of bird activity and attracts a fair amount of squirrels and doves. It also creates a messy pile of debris that must be swept off of the deck regularly.

One day about 2 weeks ago, I decided to step out and do some sweeping. Honestly, I hadn't swept for a while and knew that some spring cleaning was in order for the entire deck.

As I swept around the base of the sliding doors, I noticed a bunch of leaves, etc. had been stuffed into the crevice of one of our folding chaise lounge chairs that we store on a corner wall during the winter months.

I was feeling pretty lazy that day, so I promised myself that I would dump the junk out of that chair the next weekend when I was in a serious cleaning mood.

I figured that the squirrels must have been piling junk in there during the past winter.

Meanwhile, I was slowly becoming aware of a very annoying screeching that was taking place on a nearby branch.

The sound was being emitted by a small, brown bird that I'd never seen before. It was dancing around and jumping from branch to branch and seemed to be screaming in my general direction.

Later, I sensed that a bird came swooping towards my head, but I assumed it was one of the feeder regulars who had come for a snack and changed his mind after noticing I was there.

Whatever, I'd be done cleaning soon enough and these guys could have their little snack bar back. Sheesh!

Later that afternoon, my husband and I decided to have a late lunch on the deck. After a few minutes, we were taken by surprise as a little brown bird sat on the railing on the other side of the deck and began singing a very nice, but surprisingly loud song.

Even more surprising was the moment that it dove into the pile of debris in our folder chaise lounge!

We watched for at least an hour and finally realized that these tiny brown birds, that we later identified as wrens, had hijacked our chair for their nest!

Ah, well...so much for lounging on our deck this summer... :)