On the guest house visit, sadly, we found the bodies of two wrens. The guess is that they came in through the kitchen vent fan, an old style with large openings. We got the vent fan cover closed, but too late for the wrens.
And lastly the not-so-wild: cousin Cecil got into the backyard chickens craze, and got some Rhode Island Red chicks a few months ago. He showed up at the house Monday before we left with 3 dozen-and-a-half cartons of lovely brown eggs, "one for each of you". He's getting 10 eggs a day....