Our Singing Friends

by Neal Cardin
(Sonora, KY)

One of our wrens delivers a grasshopper for the little one's breakfast.

When our house wrens come to start their nest, it is a very enjoyable time, but not a quite time. It is never hard to tell when they are in the area as their song is sung loud and often starting very early in the morning.

We've never hard a hard time attracting the house wrens. A simple small house hung on the clothes line brought our first two pairs in several years ago. After moving, we hung two houses under the porch of a storage building during the winter as spring rolled around, in come the birds.

Our birds have never seemed to mind us being around their boxes until this year. Before they would sing and let us know if we were close, but this year they become really defensive. Part of it may the young cats that have become permanent residents at our house.

The cats can't get to the birds or the boxes, but we know the wrens have a fit when the cat gets near. One particular bird become very defensive after the eggs hatched. While watering the flowers one morning near the boxes, one bird followed me and tried to grab my shirt sleeve as I walked away.

We love it when they are around. We have several other types of birds around our house, but nothing else seems to enjoy singing loud and constant as the wrens.

We hoping they keep coming back.