FAMILY SLAIN!

[vince1080]

Hello all,
I have been fortunate enough to have a family of Fairy Wrens live in and around my front yard, I eagerly awaited spring hoping there would be an addition or two to the family, a few days ago my hope was realised, as I walked past a Gardenia bush I heard the squawking of 3-4 babies begging for food. The only problem I looked up and saw an Indian Myna perched on the electrical wires above staring fixated on the spot where the little birds were squawking.
For the rest of the day I kept a watch from my home office window running outside when I saw the Myna in the area, pretending to have a sling shot aimed at it seemed enough to make it fly away, obviously I couldn't stand guard all day, the next day today the nest is empty. I am quite upset I was really looking forward to having the extra wrens around which brings me to my question.
Its still early in the season and I hope the Wrens attempt another brood is there anything that I can do to prevent this happening again? Please any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

In mourning.

Vince.

[avinet]

Very sad to hear of our native birds being under threat from Indian Miners - they are a big problem in some areas of Australia. I've no real solution except to try chasing them away whenever you see them until they get tired and go somewhere else.

Maybe it might be possible to place some chicken wire with a big enough opening for the wrens to get through around the nest area that would stop the Miner getting at the nest - hopefully that won't scare the parents away from the nest site but it might.

cheers,

Mike

[meandem]

Luckily where we live we don't have the Indian Minors! That is so sad I love to watch our wrens fledge for the first time. And the little willy wagtails too They are just so cute. We have the noisy minors but they more just annoy everyone. It's a game of chase for them. We have put wire up on our "wildlife feeders" to stop the cockatoos eating and scaring the life out of everything.