Sweet Little Family

  A pair of wrens nested in the hanging basket that holds a Swedish Ivy plant.  This planter is right inside the greenhouse door where I enter each day.  My trips in and out of the door never bothered the little wrens as they were building the nest and Mama Wren was never alarmed while she incubated her eggs.  I like to think that the wrens have accepted the fact that I will never harm them. 

  Yesterday as I entered the greenhouse, I heard a soft, almost inaudible peep.  Ahh, this sounded promising!  I gently turned the basket so I could see inside of the nest.  Yep, the eggs were hatching!  One, two, three fluffy grey heads with huge yellow beaks could be seen inside the tightly woven nest.  The other two eggs showed signs of hatching as well.  Mama and Daddy Wren were already on the search for bugs for their hungry brood.  Mama Wren had no qualms of leaving the eggs to hatch by themselves since the greenhouse was the perfect temperature.  No need to worry about the little ones at the moment.  It was more important to gather food for the soon-to-be hungry brood.

  While I busied myself with the herbs, Mama and Daddy Wren made trip after trip to the nest.  With each mouthful, the peeps grew stronger.  The birds were growing!  The next two weeks will find both parents tirelessly hunting.  Then, the little ones will fledge and learn to fly in the relative safety of the greenhouse.  After just one day, they will head outside to explore the world beyond the confines of these walls.  At night, however, the little wrens will come home to roost.  The greenhouse will be their home for the next few months as they learn the ropes of being an adult bird.  Meanwhile, Mama and Daddy Wren will start another nest and the whole process will start again.