08/24/2021
August Nature Notes: The Noisiest Little Bird!
There is a pair of House Wrens raising young in my yard. The male sings constantly, and I’m tired of his very loud, bubbly chatter, which he thinks is a song, but I think it’s just noise! House Wrens nest all over New Hampshire, and especially like back yards and gardens. The House Wren is the most common wren, but there are two other wren species in New Hampshire. The Carolina Wren really does sing, and the rhythm is as if he were singing “Teakettle! Teakettle! Teakettle!” Deep in the woods, preferring to nest in a tangle of fallen trees, is the Winter Wren. I think he’s called the Winter Wren because a few of them do overwinter in our state, but most of them migrate to winter in our Southern states. He has a truly remarkable song, a very long, fast waterfall of high, loud notes, heard in the woods. In our yards, the House Wren is dreadfully possessive about nest boxes, and has been known to enter nest boxes of other species and pierce their eggs. So I don’t really like House Wrens, but I am stuck with this noisy pair who won’t leave until September. They make me appreciate our most common bird, the good old American Robin, plump and busy finding worms on the lawn, building nests in the trumpet creeper vine on the house, and singing loudly but sweetly. I enjoy watching robins from my porch. Their handsome red-orange breasts, their black heads, their busyness! If they were rare birds, we’d pay more attention to them probably. August is one of several favorite months of the year. I try to swim every day, no matter what the weather. The nights are cool, it’s the end of summer, and I love this month.
Betsy Janeway at [email protected]
