The wonders of Wrens

I am unabashedly, a bird lover. Wild birds, pet birds, injured birds, well birds, hungry birds, fat birds, I love them all.  I love to watch their quirks, their comings and goings, their flirting, their nesting, their parenting skills and the feeling of sadness when they head off to warmer climates and the world becomes many voices quieter.
Of all my garden birds my favourite is the little spunky, saucy tail up, common house wren! That may seem strange when there are so many more "flashy" birds to choose from, but when I hear my little wrens chattering in the spring I can only smile a big smile and think "they're back! Yeah!"
My house wrens have been nesting in my garden for 22 years, establishing their territory and growing in number throughout that time. I live right next to a forest and actually since I've been ill my "garden" has become a bit shall we say "wild". Although my neat flower gardens, vegetable garden, and pond are no longer, my berry bushes, trees, and lots of fragrant shrubs have made this corner of my world very attractive to birds ( and I feed them!which helps!).
As I have mentioned in other posts, I became ill back in 2003, and most of my energy now is focused on the most basics of life, and dealing with constant pain which is very tiring.  Whereas I used to be out in the garden everyday possible, now I spend more time in the house. I used to erect a screened gazebo every year and feed and watch the birds from there, I now have a window by the couch where I sit and watch as the world goes by, so I had a brilliant idea! I mounted a wren house on a pole right outside my window! Best idea I've had in a long time as this has brought me much joy as I have a front row seat to the busy nature and highly protective qualities of these tiny chattering birds.
In cleaning out their nest this spring I came across a wide variety of nesting materials which included pine needles, feathers, some branches and amazingly a few large screws and nails which certainly must be decrorative because they're shiny and I can't see how comfortable they would be!! But maybe
they were trying to fix this old house as it is in great need of renovating ( a replacement was in the plan but they came home earlier than expected).
I love witnessing the focus spent on choosing their nesting materials. They are very stubborn birds and fly in with branches 4 times too big to be moved through their nest box hole! They try and try over and over again, dropping the branches and flying down to retrieve them. Eventually they satisfied and begin the task of egg laying which obviously is Mom's job but after that Mom and Dad are equally invested in the parenting and guarding their babies. One wren flies in relieving the other to go in search of food and on it goes like a well oiled machine.  They chatter in their wren language
And alert each other when anything seems threatening, like our dogs bounding around rambunctiously, or me trying to get a great photograph ( not ) of them. When it's really hot they perch on the roof of the house (which has a split in it ) and flap their wings rapidly in an effort to cool the house down ( always make sure there's water nearby that they can drink and share with the little ones.
It may seem silly, but watching them has become a big part of my day and I worry when it's hot, cold, or wet!
When they finally leave for the season I hope they are safe and miss they're presence in my garden.
But I know they will be back, or they're little ones will be back to nest somewhere else in the area next year.