At least the House Wren removed the Tree Swallow nest before building
his/her own.  A few years ago I cleaned out my nest boxes in the fall and
found the typical collection of sticks in a box that had been occupied by
House Wrens.  I removed the sticks and under them was a Tree Swallow nest,
complete with dead, baby Tree Swallows.  These House Wrens did NOT get the
Good Housekeeping seal of approval!  I knew House Wrens were very
aggressive concerning nest sites, but this was a bit over-the-top.

Ken Copenhaver
Fairfax, VT

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On Mon, May 14, 2018 at 12:24 PM, Miriam Lawrence <[log in to unmask]
> wrote:

> 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
>