Sketches: Winter Wren

Singing Winter Wren

I have a love affair with wrens that includes over thirty years of welcoming a pair of House Wrens to our garden.  They bring song and a steady harvest of insects.  My first memory was of a pair of House Wrens that nested in my mother's clothespin bag on our back porch.  When I was about 8 years old, Mom kept me home from school to watch the fledgling wrens exit the nest and perch on our porch railing.  Now I have added the same love for Winter Wrens, after I  discovered them in a deep forest gorge nearby.

I first found these Winter Wrens last year.  At left is one of last year's males in full song. It begins with the song. Here is a link from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as an  introduction:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Winter_Wren/sounds

There is a small stream that runs crystal clear most of the gorge. It has overhanging banks that are ideal for wren nesting and also food in the stream and the forest slopes.

On a recent morning in early May, I set behind my camera on the rocky stream bed expecting some males to begin singing.  A wren appeared to sing a bit, but then I saw something new.  It dropped into the stream's shallows to explore some aquatic mosses.

This was something new for me.  It explored the scene and clearly was picking food from the moss.  Maybe aquatic larvae?

I was excited to see this.  I decided to come back the next sunny afternoon when the light was better.  

When I returned, there was little singing, but I waited.  With a little chitter-chitter song, a wren arrived on a branch and soon dropped into the stream's edge.  (I theorize that this is a female since there was no elaborate singing.  Just a guess.)  

I expected some foraging in the moss like the previous day.  Wrong!

It was bath time.  The water was flying.  Sometimes, only the top of the back was visible.  I was firing off images rapid fire.  Soon, it was time to shake and preen on a large perch at stream's edge.

 

Then it needed to fluff up the feathers.

Then a call for a little more preening of the wing feathers.

Was that it?  No, time for another jump into the stream it seems.

Guess this was the rinse cycle.  Back on the perch for a last preening and the bath is finished.

Now to find a nice sunny perch to dry off.  Isn't she pretty?   

And, aren't I lucky?

Paul