Winter Lineup: Carolina Wren

Carolina Wrens are around and highly active all year, but in winter they seem to be even more maniacally busy around the feeders.  I see ours everywhere.  They're sampling all of the foods, from sunflower seed to suet to peanuts, and they maintain their eternal vigil around the deck seeking sheltering spiders and insects.  And most of all, they sing.  One regularly perches on the deck railing and on even the coldest day belts out a challenge to all comers: This is Mine.  Unlike the Titmice and Chickadees, the wrens seem more often curious about the humans' affairs, watching intently as I make my rounds or peer out through the windows.  What a marvelous winter resident!