bird watcher

One Male Wren Seeking Home for Love of His Life.

Wren perched in hydrangea tree outside my studio

Allowing nature to take its course can take patience. This is how I’ve felt with this dear little wren who has stopped by a few times in the last week scouting out potential bird houses suitable for his female wren companion.

A few years ago I was giddy with excitement as I was able to observe on a daily basis a set of wrens who decided to raise a family right outside my Joyful Pause Cottage studio.

I delighted in their daily song. Admired the male’s protectiveness of the nest. Smiled at their persistence in building a nest working together to get tiny sticks they’d gathered inside the bird house opening. But then how often the stick would be crosswise over the hole and try as they might it would eventually fall to the ground. Though there were a few times they’d figure it out, manage to turn the stick around, and I’d silently be cheering them on. While I also got quite the chuckle out of how determined they are as I watched the male wren swoop down and strike the back of a chipmunk nearby as a warning to move along.

It is the male who seeks out not only one location, but several for an appropriate nesting area. It is only then that he brings his female mate to these potential sites. She has the final say of what feels like home to raise their little brood.

I can certainly relate to this as home means so much to me too! And it got me to thinking about some patience that is in order for me also around some things I’ve been pondering. So thank you, Wren, for the reminder.

So, fingers crossed, we will have a wren family in the neighborhood later this spring! And hopefully by then my patience will have paid off too!

UPDATE: Tuesday morning at 10:30 am –  Wren was hanging out and singing away on top this birdhouse!

XO

Barb

For the Love of Sparrow

As I walked over to my printer the other morning, it was this sweet sparrow that caught my eye outside Joyful Pause Cottage studio window.

So unassuming. Still as could be. Something about this struck me.

The image stayed with me for days.

A few times glancing again at the picture I’d captured, I’d feel my heart swell and tears spring to my eyes.

How often we only see beauty in the bright colors of the world.

The shades of brown not so much.

The sparrow often overlooked or underrated.

Yet, I found so much elegance in this scene outside my window.

While I don’t yet know why it struck me so or that this has continued to stay with me, I’m in gratitude to Sparrow.

For the feelings in my heart that stir even though I can’t name them.

But makes me that much more appreciative of this one precious life.

XO

Barb

    

Local Watering Hole

Local Watering Hole

This scene of at least six to eight birds gathered at the bird bath right outside my writing cottage greets me at different times throughout the day, which only seems to happen like this in the winter months. It just lights my heart up! There is something so grounding and calming – almost meditative – in watching them.

Last winter I was disappointed that I couldn’t keep my bird feeders up because deer come through our backyard and eat the feed in one fell swoop. It took me a few days to figure out why my feeders would be empty the day after I filled them!

I was disappointed that I couldn’t keep feeding the birds as I love to see them all year. Though I do have a suet feeder where woodpeckers visit and the deer don’t seem to bother that feeder.

But the positive side to all this is having a heated bird bath I get to see a sweet scene of a flurry of action as birds flutter in and out, taking their turns at the local watering hole I’ve provided for them. And with all the leaves off the trees, after they have quenched their thirst they hang out out on the bare branches.

And I’m quite sure they are all raving how delicious and five-star the local watering hole is right outside Joyful Paws headquarters!

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