>How common are house wrens as breeders west of the Cascades Mountains
>in Washington? I have seen House Wrens nesting east of the Cascades
>but not in the Olympia area where I spend most of my time.

They are "pretty common" out here in NE Thurston County. Every year,
we get at least one male scoping out the next boxes in our yard; only
once have they raised a brood. Other next boxes in the neighborhood
always have wrens. They are noisy and conspicuous breeders in snags
around the fringes of the big clear cuts north of the county landfill.

I understand that they're also fairly common in Skagit County and the
San Juans. My impression is that, like Chipping Sparrows, Western
Bluebirds, and other open country birds, they were more widespread
earlier in the century, after the original logging had created large
tracts of open land.

Eric Kraig
Olympia, WA
kraig at wln.com