The saga started in March and ramped up in April. A pair of Carolina wrens returned to Angelkeep with intentions of family production. Two nest locations, watched with wild anticipation, began outside Angelkeep kitchen windows. One selection was in an outside garage door light fixture. Alternating between building projects, a second nest site began on top of several boat seat cushions hanging on a hook outside a different kitchen window. Building more than one nest and then deciding on just one for an egg clutch was common practice for this bird.
Every morning while Angelkeep humans prepared breakfast selections, Mr. Wren perched on an Osage orange stick implanted in a patio flower pot. His song rang true, welcomed by humans as a sign of spring’s return. Female wrens did not sing. The power and brilliance of his songs were enough to represent both of this mated pair. They mated for life.
Multiple brown varieties in the bird’s design, and the multiplicity of patterns made Mr. and Mrs. Carolina Wren nearly impossible to describe. Google for a photo, although Angelkeep took pictures and videos by the hundreds. How could one not do so when a wren posed atop a boat cushion just eight inches from the kitchen window with a beak full of moss for a nest?
The boat cushion nest became the ultimate choice, although it was exactly a month ago before it became common knowledge. A camera zoom lens approached the nest site for a photographic check. Mrs. Carolina Wren flew out from the recessed nest, scaring the bejeebers out of this photographer. The resultant photo, after Mom’s departure, provided evidence of a clutch of five eggs.
These wrens typically lay three to seven eggs which appear creamy-pinkish with rusty-brown spots. Each measure a bit over half an inch in width. That was a lot of egg surface to cover for this mommy wren’s small body. Perhaps that’s part of the reason she built the nest with a cover, leaving only a side exit. A nest room held mama’s warmth.
Nest material came in quite a variety in the Angelkeep wren nest. Included in this nest were small sticks, dried plant stalks, grass blades, lots of moss, and behind the five eggs showing in the photo hung a piece of plastic discovered from some location, its source unknown. Female wrens were also known to continue to add soft material, like the moss, on the inside of the nest, even after the eggs have been produced and the incubation started. Every mother wanted her children to have all the comforts that she could afford to provide.
Moms’ nurturing fostered a Mother’s Day creation. Mothers turned into Grandmothers and regardless of the children being converted to grandchildren, their desire to spoil and nurture continued in the same heartfelt manner. Wrens, and other birds, fail to carry on with the grandparent stage. As a matter of fact, Mrs. Caroline Wren would likely soon move on to yet another clutch, leaving the boat cushion crew to fend for themselves, find their own spouse, and dive into the reproduction scene.
Continued family relationships fell off after just a few weeks. Angelkeep can’t help but wonder if the five children of Mrs. Carolina Wren would remember her, should they find a mate and return to Angelkeep for a similar nest building location. Family reunions would be massive, given that each of Mrs. Wren’s clutches, potentially three with seven eggs each, could total twenty-one per season. Think about it. Potentially: after one year a wren mothering twenty-one children, who each produce twenty-one of her grandchildren, or grandwrens, combined in a family get-together might be a maximum of 443. That includes Mr. and Mrs. Carolina Wren, the patriarch and matriarch pair.
If half of the offspring were male, a Carolina wren choir of two hundred plus, might be heard a mile away. Those male wren singers could ramp up the volume as good as any songbird. Angelkeep discovered via home videos that males also get into a bit of a dance step while singing their little hearts out. Doing this outside of the Angelkeep kitchen window seemed a show-off performance. Now it could rightly be considered timely entertainment provided for his mate while she did her motherly duty of brooding.
Doing the math from the first egg sighting, the incubation and nesting should be completed by Sunday, Mother’s Day. Angelkeep prepared a Mother’s Day bounty for the whole family consisting of oil sunflower seeds with a side of suet.
Happy Mother’s Day Mrs. Carolina Wren.
Mr. Daugherty is a Wells County resident who, along with his wife Gwen, enjoy their backyard and have named it “Angelkeep.”
