Bird Watching: A really truly "House" Wren, 1 by critterologist

critterologist wrote:
We've got an artificial wreath on the front door, and I guess this little wren decided it would make a good roost... until he got a rude awakening! Jim (DH) opened the door to take out the recycling bin, and the wren frantically flapped his way inside. He was so little and quick that I thought at first he might be a little brown bat, but then he perched on the china cabinet and we saw it was one of the little house wrens that hang around our place.

Eliot (our young cat) thought Christmas had come early, and Santa had brought the most fabulous, fascinating toy! We scooped up Eliot and put him in the downstairs bath, and then (fortunately) the wren fluttered his way into the study. We were just like the keystone cops for a while, each of us with a sweatshirt in our hands trying to capture him while he fluttered from the printer to the top of the cabinets to the bookshelf to the window to... you get the picture. We tried a quieter approach, but he was just panicked about being inside. Finally, I managed to drop my shirt on top of him when he landed on the desk, and then I was able to gently scoop him up.

We figured he was pretty exhausted from all that flying about, so instead of putting him right outside we shut him up in a cardboard box and put him into the dark bathroom (after removing Eliot-kitty from said room) so he could rest and recover a bit. I just put the box out on the porch, and he wasted no time in dashing away, probably up into the ornamental pear next to the front door. There was a little light there near the porch, so he didn't seem to have any trouble zipping away in the dark. It's not supposed to be so cold tonight, so I figured it was better to put him back out than to try keeping him overnight in his box.

I hope he's none the worse for his adventure! Eliot thinks it's the most fun we've had all week. Ha! Jim was less amused... he got pooped on. I pointed out that, at least, it was a very little bird. LOL

Here's our little visitor, perched on top of the bookcase, looking decidedly unamused.