Back in May, I noticed that a wren had built a nest up in the roof of my rather ancient garage port, tucked right up in the metal frame. I kept an eye on it, but nothing seemed to happen. The male builds the nest and then brings his mate to inspect. If she does not like it, he will build another! I presumed this is what had happened.
When I was parking the other day, I saw a little flash of brown and realised that there were chicks in there… the adults were back and forth with beaks full of insects. The nest is behind the ivy about half way up the right hand side of the roof.
Today, I crept closer for a better look. It was going to be a difficult place to fit a camera because there was little I could attach it to and I needed to do it quickly so I did not disturb them. Luckily, I had some wood in resting in the metal frame of the roof. Lifting one of the beams up a little, I was able to attach a camera on the bottom and point it up toward the nest. You can just see the silver camera in this picture, on the wooden plank.
It is pretty dark in there, so the camera’s IR is on and I had to cover some of the IR LEDs as it was a bit bright as the cam is quite close. The nest is well hidden and in a very safe place!
On returning to my office, I put the cam up on my screen and was delighted to see 3 little heads and the parents returning to feed them. The chicks look quite big and are probably only a week off fledging, but it will be nice to watch them for a few days.
The camera will be live streaming on my website. Watch out for the tiny heads and a flash of brown as the adults pop in to feed them! Here is a clip of the nest from today. The parent feeds them about a minute in on the clip.