Bird in the Boot

My sister and her husband left a pair of large boots on the front porch of their house near Nashville. They went on a short trip and came back and peeked into one of the boots. Surprise ! There was a small nest built right inside the boot. My sister noticed a small brown bird flitting around the rim of the boot, which she could not identify, so she telephoned us.

She described to us a Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus), which is so common a bird in this area that we also have one in our backyard. It is a smallish bird, reddish brown in color with a distinctive white stripe above its eye. It forages for insects in the dry leaves under bushes and in the undergrowth of forested places.

After several e-mails discussing the nest in the boot situation, my sister noticed that there were five eggs inside the small grass nest constructed inside the boot. The gray eggs had a dark strip on one end of the egg. She described a Carolina Wren flying to and from the boot, fetching worms and insects to the boot.

We started making calculations for a gestational calendar for the Carolina Wren, when my sister reported finding another nest inside her horse barn. It is springtime and birds are busy making babies. We told my sister that after breaking out of the egg, a Carolina Wren nestling usually takes ten to sixteen days to fledge. She tried to calculate when they might leave the boot. She was scared that something had happened to the boot babies. Even though the other nestlings inside the barn had left the nest and were gone, thewren babies back on the porch inside the boot were deathly quiet. What was wrong ?!? Where were the birds ?

My sister telephoned me with updates about a pencil sized stick having been brought to boot and stretched across the top of the boot. She surmised that this looked like some kind of perch for a bird. Then, she reported that the Carolina Wren had dragged one end of the stick down into the boot. This was perhaps her step ladder for the nestlings to get out of the boot.

Today, we are pleased to report that the babies have left the nest. The hiking boot is empty. Nature took its course. The pregnant Ms. Carolina Wren had just borrowed the boot.

Robert and Berry

photos courtesy of cfowler, wikipedia