For the Birds

Hey, anybody still checking this blog? I keep thinking I'm done with doing this, but somehow after a couple of months I come back. Well, I'm back for this time anyway.

We have a really nice patio out our back door, at least we think its nice. We even think its about the nicest one in our little community. Anyway, we like to sit out on the patio in the morning, and evening too sometimes, when the weather is suitable.

This morning we were out there again and watching the doings of our wrens. We call them our wrens because this pair chose to build a nest inside the semi-enclosed storage unit we have off our patio. On the picture at the right its behind the lattice on the left side of the patio. There was really no good place in there where we keep our outside "stuff" to build a nest, so the wrens made one. It turned out to be quite an accomplishment! It looks quite comfy and secluded in the corner on one of the shelves.

We watched with interest as the wrens worked on their project of making a home. They didn't like us sitting on our patio chairs at all, and they let us have it with their scolding. We just told them, too bad, we were here first! But in spite of our interruptions to their work, they got it finished. This whole process took a couple of weeks, and finally in checking one day, we discovered some very small eggs. It was hard to see how many, even when using a flashlight, so we didn't get a count.

Yesterday after seeing the mama fly out I got a flashlight and looked into the nest and lo and behold there were several little tiny heads looking up with gaping mouths expecting some food from mama wren. This morning we were frustrating for mama as she came carrying food for her little ones. She would hop around and sit on different things until finally, after several scoldings, she flew into the storage area to give the food she had in her mouth to the newly hatched "wrenlets."

Through all of this we heard several different sounds from these birds. I'm sure there was communicating going on, and once in a while we would hear their song. These are different wrens than we usually see around here as their song is quite different. But they are wrens nonetheless. In the bird book we have there are so many different kinds of wrens that we haven't been able to say for sure which breed these are.

Its all been very interesting for us and it will be interesting as well when we finally see the little ones fly away and begin their own journey. Until then, and beyond I hope, I remain --

Pilgrim on the way