{"id":1542,"date":"2013-05-30T09:05:07","date_gmt":"2013-05-30T13:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/?p=1542"},"modified":"2025-05-23T12:26:55","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T16:26:55","slug":"this-house-wren-lives-wild-in-ontario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/this-house-wren-lives-wild-in-ontario\/","title":{"rendered":"This House Wren Lives in the Great Ontario Wilderness Somewhere"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve wanted to see a wren all spring. Everyone else sees wrens. I\u2019ve even been on guided Nature Walks where everyone else is pointing and exclaiming and I still couldn\u2019t see the Wren. Partly I\u2019m incompetent and partly they are difficult to spot.<\/p>\n

Wrens often like to forage and feed under cover. They will poke about under tangles of exposed roots, fallen branches and knotted grape vines. They often rummage through dead leaves and can be a bit noisy about it. What they don\u2019t do well is stay still.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Knowing this behaviour taught me to stop and start shooting photos whenever I see or hear a possible bird. That\u2019s lead me to spend an incredibly long time taking photos of Song Sparrows. Of course, after 15 minutes of desperately trying to manually focus through an impenetrable wall of tangled twigs, the Song Sparrows almost always dart up to the top of an exposed nearby tree and start singing lustily, while shooting a sort-of \u201cfooled you\u201d sneer down their beaks at me.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

So imagine my \u201chere we go again\u201d dull enthusiasm when I spotted something small and brown poking about under a tangle of roots and dead leaves in Lakeside Park, Mississauga while I was watching warblers. I pointed and clicked and gave up on autofocus and squinted and twisted the lens and fired again.<\/p>\n

A House Wren Hiding at Lakeshore Park<\/strong><\/h2>\n

To my surprise I saw some little white dots. For some reason, they always remind me of the little dots you can get on a browned meringue on top of a pie. To me, they suggest Wren.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

With growing interest, I focused and snapped again. Yes, no, maybe?!<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

And in reward for all those other pointless shoots, this little wee Wren stopped just long enough between hidey-holes for me to get a few quick out of focus photos.
\nThen it darted off in flight to the next clump of vegetation leaving me well behind.
\nI didn\u2019t mind though. I was still glowing from my first successful Wren watch.
\nAt home I looked up what kind of Wrens we get in Mississauga either year round or on migration. They seem to be Winter Wrens, House Wrens and Carolina Wrens. I actually have seen Carolina Wrens several times at bird feeders so I knew it wasn\u2019t one of those.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

If my keying out is correct, this little brown bird was a House Wren. Lakeside Park is in an industrial and agricultural area. The nearest house is about 2 km away and it\u2019s not standing in a subdivision. So I think perhaps this wren should be re-named. I\u2019ll call it a Spotted (It) Wren.<\/p>\n

Related Reading<\/strong><\/p>\n