Carolina Wren

26 October 2015. Downtown Burlington ON. The vanishing of our birds has become increasingly noticeable in the past week or two; as the leaves fall so the birds leave town. I have conducted a few routine censuses recently, each one turning up fewer birds than the previous, but always with a highlight: A singing Purple Finch that baffled me for a while. I thought it was a Blue-headed Vireo, their songs are vaguely similar; A Fox Sparrow seen briefly as it darted into a thicket of dogwoods, allowing just a fleeting glimpse of the intense rust-red of its back and wings. Both of these species are late fall migrants; it’s their job to turn out the lights when they leave.

The four seasons in our temperate climate stand in clear contrast to each other. In the garden this is the season to clear away the exhausted, the depleted and the frost-bitten. We don’t have a compost pile, our garden debris is taken and composted by the city, but I’d rather not dispose of plants that still have seed heads. Instead I gather and tie sheaves of exhausted Woodland Sunflowers, Echinacea and Phlox and pile them in a quiet corner where birds, and probably rodents too, can find shelter and food for days and weeks to come. I’ve always hoped these piles serve their supposed purpose but had no sure way of knowing. But this morning when I looked out, I saw a small dark bird making its way down and around an old wooden barrel and into the pile. I reached for my binoculars and a few minutes later an alert Carolina Wren appeared, perching prominently on top of one of the sheaves and showing clearly the its rich brown plumage, pale eye-stripe and pale throat. Moments later I spotted a companion bird and since Carolina Wrens stay paired up all year, it was probably its mate.

We’ve had a pair (I assume) of breeding Carolina Wrens in the neighbourhood all summer, more often heard than seen. Now, of course I hope my pile of garden debris will continue to attract them through the winter.