A Carolina Wren nest in a boot. Carolina Wren's often choose odd locations for their nests. They do not often chose to use nestboxes.
A Carolina Wren nest is a bulky, somewhat messy mass of debris like leaves with some coarse hay/grass, twigs, moss, little roots, weed stalks; strips of bark, plastic or even snakeskin; generally domed with tunnel like entrance; and lined with feathers, animal hair, Spanish moss, wool, and fine grasses. Eggs are white/pale pink or rosy tint/light gray (larger than other wren eggs); usually with heavy brown/reddish-brown flecks often concentrated at larger end. Little or no gloss, unlike House Wren.
Guess Wayne won't be wearing these boots for a while....
(Wilmington, NC. Photos by Bet Zimmerman, May 2007)
The Carolina Wren likes to nest where she " can dodge in and out and in a twinkling appear or disappear like a feathered Jack-in-the-box"
- Dr. Chapman, Life Histories of Familiar North American Birds
May 29, 2008 - Take Your Pick (parents feeding fledgling)
June 10, 2008 - That Look Belongs in a Holster (female MOBL)
You cannot begin to preserve any species of animal unless you preserve the habitat in which it dwells. Disturb or destroy that habitat and you will exterminate the species as surely as if you had shot it. So conservation means that you have to preserve forest and grassland, river and lake, even the sea itself. This is vital not only for the preservation of animal life generally, but for the future existence of man himself—a point that seems to escape many people.
-Gerald Durrell, The Nature Conservancy
