wren-in-the-box

Early this morning I was walking down to the mailbox to send out some mail 

and I was in total awe of all the birdsong and bird activity all around me.  

Normally, early in the morning, I'm still trying to wake up.

I'm not a jump out of bed kind of girl.  I have to ease myself awake.

 

 And my usual method of easing awake is sitting at my computer 

drinking something with a little caffeine.

That's fine and dandy for the colder months of the year,

but why not take coffee outside in the summer?

  Forget the e-mail and web browsing until a bit later... it'll always be there, and none of it is anywhere nearly as important or interesting as what's happening outside.

It's definitely time to change up my summer morning habits.  

Besides, it was so alive outside, 

so brimming and flitting with activity that I was instantly awake!  

Look at what I would have missed if I hadn't gone out with the mail:

After looking through some bird guides, I'm guessing it's a little house wren.

(If you think or know it's something else, please post a comment and let me know!)

She kept diving down to the ground, gathering little twigs or pine needles.

I watched for several minutes.  I tried to keep track of how long it took her each trip, and she seemed to be gone about 20 or so seconds each time.

Then I got to marvel at watching her try to get her wide nest building materials 

in through the little opening.

I thought she was turning around to say to me,

"Hey, what are you looking at?" 

or

"How about a little help here, please?"

 But all anthropomorphizing aside, I think she was simply changing positions 

so she could angle her things inside the nesting box.

It took a fair amount of finesse.

And out again for more.