The Wren

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 The first image I have in my head of a wren is seeing it on the farthing coin, but as that coin was discontinued in 1961 it might not mean much to most people.

We have wrens in the garden the year round. When I hear wrens singing I am always amazed that such a gusty song can emanate from such a tiny bird. They haven't got going with the singing yet as this is a breeding season thing with males holding on to a territory.


Wrens pop in and out of the holes in our dry stone walls and often we think we have seen a mouse, they move along the ground and in lower vegetation. The Latin name for the wren is Troglodytidae or "cave dweller" which reflects this preference for cracks and crevices.
During the breeding season the males build a series of domed mossy nests. Every year one chooses a nest box that I put up to attract house martins by the back door. Once the male pairs up with a female he acts like a sort of estate agent and takes them around the various nests for her to choose one. It's not unheard of for the male to make use of one of his unused nests to mate with another female.
The photo below is of another wrens nest above our porch where the wren has built its nest on top of an old swallow's nest. It turned out to be not a great bit of planning as baby wrens kept falling out of the nest and I scooped two of them up to pop them back in. There is also a photo of the fledgling.

Two winters ago the same swallow nest was used by about half a dozen adult wrens who used it to overnight in. I guess it was a lot warmer snuggled up in there and they are not territorial outside of the breeding season.

Diary Notes.
I was delighted to find another clip of an otter from last nights camera trap. I "baited" the traps in the hope of attracting the badgers (with dried dog food) and this seems to be what the otter is eating.
We are seeing herons regularly this week. Two at the same time yesterday in the field next to ours.




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