A Tale of Two Wrens...

For the last several weeks we have been delighted that a pair of House wrens have nested in one of our bird houses and we enjoy hearing them sing from time to time.  A couple of days ago, for the first time, I saw one of the young birds stick its head out of the door to receive food brought by one of the parents. 

I had taken some photos of one of the parents early on in this activity and was happy to have the photographs (one posted on a previous blog), but I wasn't very happy with the photograph because the bird was substantially backlit.  I've been hoping that by just sitting in the yard I would eventually get a photo of one of the birds, but they're quick, can be somewhat secretive and it just hadn't happened. 

This morning I was in the process of getting ready to go shopping when I stepped out the patio door and spied one of the adults on a staging perch of one of the feeders that has been inactive for several weeks.  I stood for about a minute watching, and when the bird didn't fly I ran for my camera.  It was still there when I returned, but in trying to maneuver for better lighting the bird flew.  I decided to wait for a few minutes to see if it might return.

While I was waiting another bird flew into my view and I whiled away a little time taking several photos of it.  I saw movement in some young madrones behind the other bird and soon noticed movement on the side of one of the large fir trees.  By its behavior I at first thought that it was a Brown creeper (which would have been another welcome photo subject) but when I peered through my telephoto lens I saw it was a wren.  I was able to take probably 20 photos of the wren, but after I had about gotten my quota I realized that something about the wren didn't look right.  I enlarged the photo in my viewfinder and found that the bird definitely had to be a Bewick's wren!

Now I was in a state of confusion!  Had I misidentified the bird I had photographed several weeks earlier  and misidentified the birds that were nesting in our bird house?  While I was trying to sort through all of these confusing thoughts a wren flew to the staging stick where I had originally seen it, and this time while taking photos I was more careful in my identification.  This was definitely a House wren... one of the parents using our bird house.  I was able to take many more photos of it before it moved on. 

Bewick's wren... 

House wren...

So what would you be doing if you were a House wren and were getting ready to successfully fledge a new family?  Well, burst forth in song might be a good guess!  (What a mouth!)