A tiny movement caught my eye.

I looked down at the floor of the deck as I sat “computing” in the corner and a tiny cinnamon-coloured Carolina Wren was cheerfully hopping around. It stopped to snack on little morsels of discarded seed that had fallen from the soles of my shoes after a trip out in the yard.

“Well, hello little birdie,” I said to it. “Did you take a wrong turn?”

Paying no attention to me at all, it continued on its exploration, flitting from one spot to another on the floor, flying up on to the table and even briefly standing atop the camera I use to stream the bird feeders. (The camera is live from dawn to dusk, Eastern Standard Time.)

I’ve seen these cute little birds in here a couple of times since. I think there are two that visit the yard regularly but given the fact I can’t really discern the differences between them, I’m not sure. I do know that a pair of them comes at the same time every time and when they do, they visit every feeder if only for a few minutes before stopping at one for a longer time, depending on what seed is being offered.

According to the All About Birds guide on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website, after hooking up Carolina Wrens mate for life, which probably explains the pair I see all the time. After forming this connection, they stay in the same territory year-round, flying, foraging and feeding in each other’s company.

Again, according to All About Birds, the foraging habits of a Carolina Wren is it “creeps around vegetated areas and scoots up and down tree trunks in search of insects and fruit. It explores yards, garages, and woodpiles, sometimes nesting there.”

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I haven’t seen any nests in my yard but I’m pretty sure there are many in the surrounding trees and wooded areas near the Thames River, which is only a short distance away from my house.

But speaking of nests, I recently moved a few rooms around in my house and needed to put an area carpet down in one to protect the hardwood floors from my office chair. I had a couple of them tucked away in the rafters of the garage. I pulled one down, unrolled it and discovered some critter had turned it into its own personal condo.

I’m assuming either a mouse or a chipmunk was the culprit, but needless to say, the carpet had to be thrown away. The semi-shag carpet fibres had been stripped away in some spot to create nesting “fluff,” almost like the critter’s own version of a blanket to burrow into.

There were also little stashes of peanuts and seeds, some eaten and others stored for an upcoming meal, nestled among the fluff. The critter had been hoarding from the yard or possibly the stash of bird food in the garage.

I felt a little bad destroying this makeshift home but I also don’t want to encourage it as sooner or later, the critters will make their way into the house, which creates a new set of problems.

Until later ….