I wish you were here, peering over my shoulder. The feathered ones are hopping about the garden with mouthfuls of grass and moss and other curious treasures left over from the winter patch. It looks like a rummage sale and oh, are they enthusiastic!
House Wren has chosen the round, white-washed house with the pointy little top. I had meant to paint her name above the door, but I probably pulled weeds instead. Anyway, here she comes, a rather wide and horizontal shape (when her mouth is full of twigs and other earthy stuff), heading into a very roundish hole. And though you aren’t next to me, I’m sure you can imagine as I actually see, that many of the sticks do not make it into the nest but fall to the ground. Frustrated, I decide to help, preparing as I might a bundle of small sticks easily fitted through a round door.
I slip on my boots and head to the garden, just to see for myself what all the excitement is about. This is what I notice…
Miss Wren does not need my help in gathering nesting supplies. Under my black-eyed-susans (which are already 4 inches of green leaves high (yippee!) I coax out bundles of old, broken stems properly sized, properly shaped for a nest. Beneath my hemlock, the one by my studio window, I find blankets of soft and feathery twigs that winter’s bellow has brought down. Not only are they thin and flexible, but the edges are cut with ridges; perfect for clinging to each other and fastening a nest firmly to a tree. In all the quiet places, under all the growing things I find fluffy mosses and sticks and grasslets and muds for every style home.
There you have it! Mother Earth has done it again and I am struck with the care that She has for all her little babies. For all of us!
I have shown you the House Wren and the Carolina Wren, two of my favorites! Both have an irresistibly delightful song and a charming manner of flitting about like little winged mice. Marigold, being the helpful sort that he is, helps Carolina Wren with her nesting chores.
I will keep an eye out for Chickadee too and keep you posted on the robin nesting in the prickly holly tree.
Until then, know that good things are coming!
