Sure death vs the wrens............

[addy1]

We watched the babies almost fly

We watched them all morning trying out their wings, then had to leave for about 1/2 hour. We came back I saw the empty nest. Started reviewing the recording backwards to see when they flew. Scared the heck out of my husband when I start screaming at the recording..........all I could say was NO NO NO............

At the beginning of the recording the babies are sleeping, they go full alert..............

Mom comes back at 3:11 into the recording, 4:14 in the recording, certain death comes, upper left corner, the parents scream and attack it.

It was the one fear I had for the nest.

 

[mrsclem]

Wow Addy- they got out of there just in time. We have wrens on our deck all the time but I caught one trying to build a nest in the canopy curtains yesterday. Then found old nests in a pair of rubber boots I use as plant pots under the deck. They will nest anywhere! Glad they are ok.

 

[Big Lou]

So glad they were saved.

 

[Mike in Vermont]

That was a close call.

 

[Becky]

Oh my goodness - talk about getting out in the nick of time!! I'm glad they weren't there when the visitor came, that would have made gruesome viewing!

 

[HARO]

A Racer! Tell him to stick to mice in the future. I like snakes, but not at the expense of birds.
John

 

[RobAmy]

Wow that was close, thanks for sharing that.

 

[addy1]

We have rat snakes, black snakes, racers the last one I saw was around 6 feet long. I was so worried the snake would find the babies before they flew. With where the nest was there was no way to protect them from it.

They were all sleeping in the nest then went to full alert, they must have seen/heard it coming, they bailed quickly.

I won't harm a snake, but if I saw it going for the birds I would have run down screaming at it. We need them with all the mice voles, moles we have around.

 

[addy1]

The parents sure gave the snake heck, wish I had sound down there. We have a lot of low laying ever greens the birds hide under all of the time. I looked for babies lost, they were all gone.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Lucky birds!

 

[addy1]

They will nest anywhere! Glad they are ok.

It is part of nature, but my heart would have been broken, sort of bonded with the little cuties watching from the time the nest was empty, to eggs to babies. The parents are so dedicated, humans could learn from them.

 

[CountryEscape]

I thought maybe the babies were in the nest when the snake showed up, wondered why the mom was trying to feed an empty nest, but never saw the snake grab one, so they were already gone, huh? Woohoo, good for them! That was a long snake! I thought it was a black snake, but it was very thin compared to black snakes I'm familiar with that are of that length. Glad to know it was a racer. Saw a blue racer once, bright royal blue. So, was this one a black racer?
Glad you shared the videos!

 

[addy1]

Mom didn't know they had left, the top one knocked the lower one out as they scattered. It was not one of those lets learn to fly, then lets take off. It was fly fly now, They must have seen the snake coming somehow.

I looked real carefully at the snake in the recording, didn't see any bulges that would indicate it ate one when they bailed from the nest.

 

[CountryEscape]

I looked for a bulge, too! I tried to count the babies but when they scattered it was quite a blur! There were 5 babies, right? That was quite a nest full for a little wren. Soooo happy they made it out in time.

 

[addy1]

There were four, one took off earlier, so three where there when the snake showed.