Tweeters,

In spring of '95, I built and put up three small birdhouses. The houses were
sized to be suitable for wrens, chickadees or downy woodpeckers. They were
hung by small chains to pear tree limbs at just below eye level; two of them
in the back yard 30 and 50 ft. from the back door. The other was hung in the
same manner in the front yard about 20 ft. from the house.

Sure enough the timing was right and a male house wren showed up. He seemed
to be as thrilled as I was about his new finds and sang with a gusto I had
never been privy to before. Of course he immediately filled all three houses
with that special kind of stick. Soon he left for a whole day and came back
the next with his mate. She went in and out of the two houses in the back
yard about 25 times and finally settled on one and began pitching out the
sticks he had put in and reorganized them to suit her. Not knowing about
wrens before, I was amazed. Anyway that year they fledged two broods, one
from each of the two houses in the backyard.

In '96, one of the houses became occupied about two to three weeks before
wren arrival time by a pair of black-capped chickadees. Again I was
delighted, but by now I had studied the wren and knew of their ways. I was
concerned about what might happen if my Ben Wren showed up to find one of his
houses occupied. I have read about and heard many horror stories of wren
behavior. Sure enough Ben showed up right on schedule and he obviously
wanted the house occupied by the chickadees. Each time he got close to the
occupied house though, the male chickadee attacked him so viciously he knew
it was a life and death matter. Each time the male attacked he let out a
sreech and apparently that was the signal for the female to join the pursuit.
They did this time after time, many times chasing the wren clear across the
road a considerable distance. This went on for the most part of three days
until finally the wren decided the house in the front yard would do. The
wren just had to totally avoid the backyard until the black caps fledged.
Shortly after the chickadees fledged, they did leave, but while they were in
the yard there was no doubt about who was in charge.

The second brood of wrens was again in the other house in the backyard.
Shortly after the wrens left in early fall, the chickadees returned and are
still here. They join me practically every morning at a feeder of black oil
by a window 18" away from my face during my morning coffee.

Donald
BTPICKLE at aol.com
Yakima WA