Saturday

[nightdog_barks]

Peeked in this morning and ... the nest is empty. Empty as in the chick and the other eggs are gone. And by gone, I mean not there, disappeared, like they were never there.

So. I have no idea what happened. A quick Google turned up some info that sometimes male wrens will destroy their own eggs. We had a thundershower move through at about 1 a.m., but otherwise there was nothing unusual.

I'm not heartbroken; I do wonder what happened but will probably never know.
ETA that the general consensus is that a night predator, possibly a rat or a possum, robbed the nest. It's still possible, however, that the parents may try to reuse it. Yes, I'll be an optimist. *g*

Bright sun and a bit cooler at 69 degrees. Otherwise not much yet. Started reading Hallelujah Junction, the autobiography of the American composer John Adams, last night.

And thus endeth the wren saga. Won't touch the nest in case someone else wants to use it.

Comments

[silverjackal.livejournal.com]

If there is no sign whatever of hatchling or eggs then a predator of some sort got to them. If it was the male being destructive you would see egg shells, and dead baby birds (because they would all be fairly fully developed at this point). Opossum, or something of the sort, is very likely if the nest was robbed at night.

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

We do have possums, but none of the pineapple plants around the nest pot are disturbed. Do you think it could have been a rat?

[silverjackal.livejournal.com]

Rat, opossum, snake, raccoon, skunk... there are a lot of possibilities. The lack of disturbance doesn't really mean much because many small predators are very nimble and don't knock things over. If there was wet ground around the nest so you could see prints you could probably identify the source, but given that it was hard substrate and the eggs and hatchling are gone you're only left with "something big enough to either eat everything all at once or carry the rest off". Leaving the nest is a good idea -- if the parents survived they may try to renest there.

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's good to know -- I was going to ask you about the nest.

Oh well. It's a sad thing, but in a way I'm glad it wasn't anything I did because then I would have felt really awful. And stupid. *g*

[silverjackal.livejournal.com]

No, it certainly wasn't anything you did. Nature is neither sweet nor gentle.

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

Are God and Nature then at strife,
That Nature lends such evil dreams?
So careful of the type she seems,
So careless of the single life ...

From In Memoriam, Canto LV
Alfred, Lord Tennyson

*g*