Last spring, when I was pregnant with my son we noticed that a house wren had taken up residence in our bird house. Everyday we saw the little bird bring sticks to the small hole of the house to build his nest with the goal of attracting a mate. From what we saw, almost every stick he brought he had trouble fitting into the hole. And yet, despite the sticks dropping, he continued. Day after day he brought more sticks until one day we saw a female coming to his nest. We watched them for a few more weeks and loved hearing them sing. However, for whatever reason they never decided to have their chicks in the bird house. We assumed it was because the male was never able to get any sticks into the house.

Last week I went to pick up a bat house I had made from someone nearby. The man I bought from is a nature enthusiast. His house is in the woods and the front is peppered with bird feeders of all sizes. When I told him about our wrens last year, he gave me a wren house that he made. He told me that it’s important to always clean out bird houses each spring, if not we risked not getting new residents that year. Hearing this I decided to clean out our bird house from last year. My husband unscrewed the bottom of the bird house and was surprised to see so many sticks within the house that none fell out! I cleaned out the house and couldn’t believe how much there was. Despite our thinking that the little bird was unable to get any sticks into the house, it appears he was quite successful! He was so determined to make the best house he could for his family that he persevered for weeks.

The endurance of the house wren reminds me a lot of how I feel as a first time parent. We’re on month four of having our little one in our lives and often I feel so tired that I’m convinced I can’t go on. But we do. His little laughs and smiles and the love he gives us makes all of the lack of sleep and endless cleaning worth it. And despite feeling like I’m down to my last sliver of energy, I go on. I imagine that the house wren was also tired spending hour after hour completing the repetitive task of bringing small sticks to put into a small hole. But he didn’t give up.

I’m not sure why they didn’t decide to make our house into their home last year, but I hope they come back this year and try again.

The determination and resilience of nature is amazing. I’ll continue to gather inspiration from other parents like house wrens as I work to build a home for my own little one.

Speaking of determination – this week we saw buds appearing on trees and new leaves in our strawberry patch.

I also got some shots of birds when visiting Kingston over the weekend.

Until next time