Our Chipper Morning Visitor...

Up here in our little single-wide in what I call "the wild hinterlands of Cloverdale" of Northern California, we have lots of birds that come by and allow us to admire them...

(I've written previously about our mated pair of Great Horned Owls in an article at: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977215658&nav=Namespace .)

The birds here in the what is termed "the oak woodlands" are very different than the ones that I was used to seeing both in the former wetlands of "the Laguna de Santa Rosa" on the edge of the town of Sebastopol here in Sonoma County where we rented a tiny house for 14 years AND the beautiful house we rented near the Russian River in Guerneville until we were "flooded out" in the winter of 2005/2006 -- here the birds are those that inhabit the drier scrublands.

I have an old, metal plantstand that sits on the front deck that Hubby made when we first moved in -- right underneath one of a bank of three windows in the (for lack of a better word) "livingroom". This time of year, however, I have removed the plants and put them slightly underneath the trailer to protect them from frost and the only thing that sits atop the plant stand right now is little, plastic personal "cooler" or icechest.

The windows in the single-wide are those old-fashioned "trailer" windows that have slats of glass at a horizontal angle that you use a hand-crank to open and close. On this particular window, the bottom "slat" of glass was broken when the landlord used one of his huge forklifts to lift the trailer before we moved in so that he and Hubby could redo the concrete block foundation (such as it is) to make it more stabil. Sometime later I bought a piece of plexiglass and cut it out to fit the space where the glass was; however, it wasn't as thick as the glass and so there is a tiny air space there.

In the last month or so, moths have been getting in under that slat and they get trapped between the screen (which is on the INSIDE of the window) and the glass.

Well, a few days ago as I was typing something on the computer, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a tiny shadow flitting outside the window and there was a tiny Bewick's Wren busily poking his slim, curved beak under the edge of the plexiglass slat.

(A photo of a Bewick's Wren taken by "j/p thomas" and posted in 2005 on Wikipedia at http://www.answers.com/topic/jpt-wren-0755-jpg-1 . See use permissions I've included with the photo by clicking on it in the upper right corner of this article.)

Evidently he (at least, I THINK it's a "he") has discovered a veritable "moth smorgasbord" because he returns each morning several times to help himself! As a matter of fact, he's right outside the window as I'm typing this! (Hopefully, when I get my new camera next week, I'll be able to get a shot of him for you! **fingers crossed** :o) )

There is a marvelous article about the Bewick's Wren on a fabulous Sonoma County birding website called "Birding Sonoma County" at http://www.americanbirdguide.com/wordpress/?p=74 . (The lady half of the couple who run that site does WONDERFUL sketches and drawings of our local birds!)

I just love watching wildlife, don't you? :o)