Yesterday I had a fun encounter in the garden with two little brown and white and yellow wren looking birds no larger than my thumb. They were the size of small store finches. I had the hose and was spraying them in the oak branches about 5 feet overhead. They’d flit in and out of the spray, then go to a branch and preen and shake, and come back. One was brave but the other followed. I wrote on Facebook, “I wonder what they are?” and David Pemberton had the right answer: the Carolina wren.
I see these little birds a lot right now. They flit in and out of the branches of my trees and bushes. Before one starts to flit away, it makes a quick dip and then springs from its legs. It sings its song before it flits and when it lands. I’ve seen them walk around on the ground poking into the leaves, and also seen them walking along the grape vines, and up the bark of trees. There are quite a few of them that visit the yard during the day, dozens sometimes at one time.
This was the first time I’d interacted with them and it was so fun. I was in the east garden hand watering everything under the now-fully-leaved oak canopy. I’ve spent time the past week pulling the oak branch deadfall out of the garden. Since there’s been a lot of it, I was glancing overhead to see if any other branches looked ready to come down. That’s when I noticed the pair of Carolina wrens.
I’d heard one singing and it sounded very loud and very near. I was surprised to see such a tiny bird since the voice was so loud. There were two of them. They were about 5 feet away from me and moving from branch to branch, staying nearby. I took the hose and sprayed it lightly their way. The male wren flew right into it, began shaking his wings and dancing in it, and his mate soon followed. I waited a few minutes and did it again, then a third time.
They must have been very young, since these were smaller and paler in color than most photos I see of them online. In fact, I did not even recognize them from my Peterson’s Eastern Birds Field Guide. I’m not a seasoned bird watcher, so I didn’t know to give some leeway for size and shape and color when identifying them. The ones in the field guide looked rounder, short and fattish. The wrens I saw were the size of a small, slender thumb. The image in the field guide was also darker than mine, with contrast more pronounced, beak longer.
I thought, in retrospect, how interesting that, even though I had the field guide in my hand and the bird in front of me, I could not identify it for sure. I didn’t leave any room for variation, so what I was looking for was quite limited. The wrens on page 215 did not exactly depict what I saw, so I discarded them as a possibility.
I wondered how many other things I’d discarded through the years that did not show up in front of me exactly as I’d been told to expect? How many other possibilities I’d not explored since it wasn’t exactly as the book said it should be. That’s one problem with labels, they train us what to expect and don’t allow for variations. That can leave us living a very limited life, not knowing to look for the more expanded picture, the wider possibility, the greater good.
I learned a lot from my little Carolina wren friends. I learned a tiny being can have a huge voice. I learned that the woodland creatures love to play with us the same as we love to play with them.
I learned don’t judge too quickly or I may be wrong. I learn to be flexible in my expectation of how something should show up in front of me, so I may recognize it when it takes an unexpected form.
All that from a Carolina wren? Oh, yeah. My experience is, I can learn from everything if I just shut up and pay attention.
And be open to a greater reality.