A New Year Begins with the Song of a Carolina Wren

This morning the new year dawned cold and clear, with a quiet orange sky in the east – and the song of a Carolina Wren. Bright, energetic and musical, the song sounded an optimistic note that might be taken as a good omen for the year ahead, despite the grim news all around, or at least as a good example of persistence and tenacity. It was answered by the song of a second Carolina Wren, and followed by a series of pugnacious trills and fussing.

I was too lazy to get up and look out the window, but could imagine them hopping from place to place around the deck or in the nearby branches and stopping to look around aggressively – little brown birds with upturned tails, slim curved bills, a white stripe over the eye, and warm cinnamon-buff breasts, their cheerful songs and wide variety of calls, trills and burbling have been among the most colorful and animated parts of the winter landscape lately. Their songs are not the only music in the trees and shrubs at this time of year, but sometimes it seems that way. It’s not unusual to hear five or six Carolina Wrens singing or calling from different places around the yard, often when everything else around seems quiet and almost empty.