Aggressive Home Invaders

Yesterday was tree trimming day around our place.  We have several large Sweetgum trees that needed some shaping up.  One of them contained a birdhouse which I had not seen any birds approach.

We've only been here since mid-January and things like the undesirable branches and the birdhouse were left by our predecessor for the new owners to handle.  There are a couple of other birdhouses, one of which was featured in a previous post with a nest of baby Eastern Bluebirds in it.  No birds would come near the birdhouse hanging in the Sweetgum tree.

I decided that since the birds didn't like the birdhouse in question, I would remove it from its prominent place.  After trimming limbs which had grown near it, I unhooked it from its perch and let it drop to the ground.  I quickly found out why the birds avoided it as a number of red paper wasps came boiling out of it in search of something to blame for their short drop and abrupt stop.

After batting the most persistent of them away with my sweaty cap, they learned to keep their distance from me but continued to remain in the neighborhood.  Wasp stings are not something I desire and when younger, would react somewhat severely to them.  Needless to say, I was wary of the tiny, winged warriors as I completed my task of trimming the tree.

In recent years there have been numerous stories of home invaders in the news.  I find it disturbing that someone would think it is an acceptable thing to do.  As I think about it though, I realize it is simply animal behavior.

In nature it is not uncommon for animals to occupy burrows created by other animals (think Rattlesnake in a Prairie Dog hole).  Animals will slip into a temporarily unoccupied den and then defend it by force.  In this world of increasingly animal-like behavior by humans I suppose it was only a matter of time that such things as home invasion and adverse occupation would occur.

Below are a couple of photos of the birdhouse in question.  The first shows the entire house while in the second you can see the dislodged Paper Wasp nest resting on the bottom.