The Wrens
by Aileen Fisher
The wrens who rent our birdhouse
come back before it’s May.
They hang their hats inside the door
and settle down to stay.
We never have to send a bill,
so punctual are they…
They start each morning loud and clear,
to sing the rent away.
After several months of unrelenting cold winter, spring is in the air in northeast Ohio. In my backyard, daffodil buds have risen a few inches above the ground, and a handful of purple, pink, and white crocuses are beginning to open around my back lawn. Several times during the winter I have heard a Carolina Wren singing its distinctive “video…video” in the trees that surround my backyard, and occasionally a Carolina Wren has appeared at my backyard bird feeders among the House Sparrows, House Finches, Juncos, and a few other resident songbirds that are regular visitors to the feeders. Most of Ohio’s wren species fly south for the winter, but Carolina Wrens are year-round residents in the Buckeye State’s southern counties and a few brave the colder winters that occur in northern Ohio.
A few years ago, during a spring visit to my friend and Amish farmer David Kline, David mentioned that a Carolina Wren was nesting in a bicycle bag in his tool shed. My wildlife photography gear in those days was a Nikon D2X, equipped with a 12.2-megapixel sensor, and an 80-400mm Nikkor zoom lens, and I was soon hunkered down in a corner of David’s tool shed about 20 feet from the wren’s nest. My favorite image from that photo shoot is shown below.
Last summer a 40-year old crabapple tree in my front garden died and was cut down by a friend who is an arborist. Instead of paying to have the tree sections hauled away, we transported them to the end of my back yard and built a woodpile for the local wildlife. This spring, I’m hoping that Carolina wrens or House wrens decide to take up residence in the woodpile.