Sherrieflower's Blog

     I guess I need to be more careful when leaving the garage door open, to make sure doors into the house are closed.  I am taking plants in and out of the garage as part of the "hardening off" process and unbeknownst to me, that must've been how the little wren got in.

     anyway, this morning, I walked into our upstairs M. bedroom and heard a rustling noise - then noticed a little brown thing jump onto the floor but it wasn't a mouse coz the next thing I knew it was flying at the window trying to get out -- it was a little wren!  So I guess it has been taking a tour of my house -up through the stairwell into the sunroom and such.  Now the question was - how was I going to get it out?  I decided to prop open the back door then went into the kitchen where the wren had just flown.  The bad thing about interacting with birds like this is that they are so flighty 'coz they get freaked.  It kept flying at the kitchen window.  I got a broom and gently coaxed it  until it found the open door and flew out.  Hurrah! Success!

While cutting wood about a year ago, my husband noticed a hole in one of the logs he'd cut and a hollowed out basin in the segment just below it.  We stacked the 2 back together in the corner by our front door and last summer wrens made a nest in it.  I thought that was a little odd being so close to a door we use a lot.  So whenever we'd open the front door - the little wren would fly out and perch in the burning bush at the edge of the front flower bed and keep a lookout.

One year, not long after we first moved here, one flew in through the balcony door and was flying around the sun room.  I am normally scared of flighty birds but I was actually able to scoop it up in my hands and release it back outside. [We don't leave the balcony door open except for going in and out].    I guess wrens are curious.

In other bird news, I saw the first Rose Breasted Grosbeak of the season at my feeder this morning.  My birdwatcher friend says she's seen the indigo buntings already too.  I've seen a brown thrasher but as I told her, I am too busy messing with plants to do much birdwatching.  I saw a flicker which looked like she was feeding young through a hole in a tree by my garden tho'.  Anyway -- plants are much easier to study coz they sit still and let you look at them.   The indigo bunting are beautiful tho'  - I have seen more birds for the first time since we moved here than ever.  Things like a rufous sided towhee, indigo bunting, blue grosbeak, and this winter a snow goose landed on our pond along with 3 Canadian Geese.  My bird book says it is rare to sight them east of the Mississippi so that was a real treat.  I keep a notebook bird list by my computer which sits next to a large picture window overlooking balcony and pond and front yard birdfeeder.  Most interesting is the migratory seasons coz we get different birds that are just passing through.

A few days before Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast a pair of cormorants showed up on my pond!  In 2006 a pied billed grebe showed up and stayed for almost 2 weeks.  That one took me a while to ID.

Right now a pair of goldfinches are at the feeder, papa goose is asleep in the front yard and mama on the nest.  Robins are boppin'  . . and its never completely quiet in the country once spring arrives for the air is always filled with bird song.   Whether we are fully conscious of them or not, the birds add much to the experience of nature.

When my son was 3 years old, we took him on a hike through a forest in NY.  We stopped to rest on some large rocks, common to the area and our little "sage" spoke up and said, "You know?  there's always a song in the forest."  Our jaws dropped as my husband and I looked at each other dumbfounded at the profundity of our little 3-year old.  It blessed me so much - I have never forgotten it.