Amy in the Garden

I had a surprise visitor to our bird feeder today: a house wren!

One of my favorite types of birds, I associate them with warming weather and an exuberant bubbling song from atop our birdhouse, styled like a white New England church. They feed on insects, and just as I’m remembering how annoying insects can be — because I’m finally back outside and trying to garden in the warm weather — the wrens return and get down to business.

Their beaks are made for seeking, grabbing and eating bugs. Welcome, tiny terminator!

And yet, on this shockingly cold day, I saw a wren amongst the usual suspects at the feeder. The seed is scattered hysterically by levels of birds. On the ground, mourning doves, juncoes, and sparrows. Scrabbling for space on the wire perches of the feeder, and so scattering feed to the rabble below, are the tufted titmice, chickadees, house finches, cardinals, and 18-wheelers in the form of bluejays and starlings.

Who would have thought that a wren would be interested in cracked corn, millet, and black oiled sunflower seeds? Apparently, this particular wren!

Who would have thought that a juncoe, consummate ground feeder, would be perched on top of my suet feeder, puzzling how to fit his sturdy frame through the slender openings of green wire, to get at the following Amy-made concoction:

It looks more appetizing to a bird, trust me.

I melted fat from beef trimmings, poured it (plus assorted leftover chunks of stuff I hoped the birds would appreciate more than I) into a loaf pan, froze it, sliced it, and place it into the suet feeder. The starlings especially, are quite grateful. The downy’s, hairy’s, and red-bellied woodpeckers also lined up. I was surprised, though, to see a ground feeder perched so high and so exposed, in search of dinner.

I suppose this deep-freeze is making the birds less picky about how they receive their calories. I, myself, am not feeling any guilt at all about extra spoonfuls of Nutella on bread, or larger portions of macaroni ‘n’ cheese I’m heaping onto my plate. I may not have the luxury of hibernation during the cold weather, but the temperature is certainly bringing out the Ursus Major in me.

The warm weather will come again, and that dang wren will still be petite and flirty, while I’ll be rumbling in my den about jeans that no longer zip. And the answer to the question of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” will be “Wren, party of 1.”

WORDS FROM OTHERS

“The shape of a bird’s beak sets tight limits on what it can eat…Each beak is a hand with a single permanent gesture. It is a general-purpose tool that can serve only a limited number of purposes. Woodpeckers have chisels. Egrets have spears. Darters have swords. Herons and bitterns have tongs. Hawks, falcons, and eagles have hooks. Curlews have pincers.”

— Jonathan Weiner, “The Beak of the Finch”