Wren Sequel/Snake Story, " Experiences in SE Virginia"

by John (Jim's twin brother)
(SE Virginia)

Follow-on to the sad Wren story previously posted; the first part is somewhat repetitious, the second part is entirely new.

On July 4, 2009 a black snake ate our Carolina Wren babies which were in a nest within a galvanized watering can on the front porch about 3 feet from the front door.

The snake had been on the porch before, searching for the wrens, but the wrens were able to decoy the snake away from the can and off the porch.

Apparently the sneaky snake spent several days observing the comings and goings of the wrens and concluded that there had to be a fresh wren meal waiting for him somewhere around the can.

So he returned to the porch and climbed up a board that was just lying to one side of the front door and adjacent to the can so that he could see the top of the can where the fill hole was.

Spotting the hole in the top of the can, he knew instantly where the babies had to be and wasted no time in entering the hole.

The wrens were frantic to discourage him and one of us also tried to frighten the snake, but there is no frightening a snake within an easy reach of a baby bird meal.

It was a pretty unequal contest - there was nothing the parent wrens could do to save their babies. In a short time the snake emerged from the hole in the top of the can and got down onto the porch floor. At this time he lost his head.

The parent wrens kept attempting to bring food to their babies but it was no use, the headless snake had their babies.

Then the female went out to a tree stump in front of the porch and spent 2 hours crying for her babies. Wrens certainly have feelings.

The final act of the male was to light on a wire by a side door on the porch that looked into the room where he knew we were and look through a window in the door at us as if he was saying goodbye and thanks for all your help.

Eight days went by during which I would hear the male wren singing around the property starting at 5:15 AM in the morning and ending at 8:40 PM in the evening.

I think he was trying to keep the property reserved for another attempt at raising another brood. Then Sunday morning (7/12/09) at around 8 AM both the male and the female wrens arrived back on the front porch and landed on the watering can!

The male checked the area for snakes and then they flew off. They hadn't inspected inside the can.

At this point we are wondering if we should clean out the old nest, The wrens could do this or they could re-use the old nest.

Also we could suspend the can from the ceiling which would make it snake proof as long as it was far enough from the walls and anything else a snake could climb on.

We suspended 2 homemade wren houses from the ceiling, but the wrens didn't look up at the ceiling when they lighted on the can. We could gradually raise the can so they could get used to a raised can.

We are now keeping the area free of snakes. How do you tell a wren that?

The question is, why did the wrens return? Are they thinking of raising more wrens in the can or did they return for sentimental reasons?