Thank you for a succinct bit of natural history, swallows here a few
years ago disappeared after house wren song appeared one summer...Veer
Frost, Passumpsic NEK

On May 14, 2018 at 4:38 PM, "anneboby"  wrote:Miriam - your
information about House Wrens preferring edge habitats for nesting is
correct; but wrens also have a habit of filling boxes with false nests
which they never use just to keep would be competition at bay. 
Perhaps this explains your wren's behavior, or you have a crazy,
aggressive wren.

I checked today 55 nest boxes that I monitor near Schenectady, NY for
swallows, bluebirds and wrens.  Several partial swallow clutches, only
one complete; most bluebird clutches complete; but despite several
wren nests, no eggs yet.  The most advanced wren nesting was one box
with a lined deeply cupped twig nest.  All others were just
collections of twigs, some of which were built atop prior, this-season
attempts made of grass/pine needles by swallows or bluebirds.

House Wrens are not good communal citizens in a large nest box colony.
 If you have one in a lone box in your garden, enjoy the loquacious
song and energetic activity of what seem like model avian citizens. 
Otherwise, they are a scourge to swallows and bluebirds in larger
settings.

Bob Yunick
Schenectady, NY
-----Original Message-----
From: Miriam Lawrence 
To: VTBIRD 
Sent: Mon, May 14, 2018 2:26 pm
Subject: [VTBIRD] House Wren demolition crew

I was playing around with my scope yesterday, enjoying the activity
around
our nestboxes, when I caught a bit of a drama - a House Wren
systematically
removing the contents of a Tree Swallow nest from a box, while the
current
occupants tried, and failed, to resist.  I got some of this on video,
which
I've edited together.  Sorry for the quality - this was all handheld
and at
a good distance away. A good iPhone scope attachment is on my wish
list!

https://youtu.be/kJHZU_Z4gsE

What I find most interesting is that this box is in the middle of a
field,
just a tree or two around (and not close to the box), and we've never
had
wrens near it before that I've seen.  And, we've got another box in
another
location, also quite exposed and not in a transitional zone, that has
been
claimed by a different pair of wrens. That female was hard at work
bullding
yesterday while her mate sang away nearby. No mother's day relaxation
for
her!  I got a little video of that too.

https://youtu.be/SVAH8cXsSdo

Am I misinformed that HOWR prefer to nest near edge?  Or did these
guys
just not get that memo?

-- Miriam Lawrence, Monkton