Mutual Reciprocity

Since this past Spring, some very tiny house wrens (not much larger that hummingbirds) have been setting up housekeeping in a hollowed-out gourd, which hangs from the side of my deck. In a blue spruce tree, next to the deck, a pair of catbirds were building a nest at about the same time. Each day as I arrived home, the catbirds would guard their yard by perching atop the telephone wire that leads from the barn to the house (my path to the house directly underneath) and loudly announcing to all that there was an intruder. The two adult wrens would then fly to the deck, struggling insects hanging from their beaks, squalking at me to back off. I watched their progessive nest building, and later, heard the tiny chirps of baby wrens, inside the gourd, as adults arrived with insect after insect.

Today, as I arrived home, I was priveledged to witness the "launching" of the baby wrens. As I came into the yard, I was met with an intensity of bird calls as I have never heard before. I soon realized what all the fuss was about. One tiny baby wren was perched on top of my air conditioner. A second was nestled inside my garden shovel. Two others were perched on the deck rail, one so small, that the summer breeze could have easily blown him off. They were too young to know that they should panic at my arrival, and too new to successfully flee. They made several attempts to flee, all ending in something more like a gentle free-fall. All the time, adult wrens squalked at me, and catbirds followed my every move (as well as those of my cat Mowgli, sitting inside on the windowsill). Two hours later, all four baby birds had managed to fly successfully to safety, in the blue spruce.

Two different species of birds working together for the safety of the young wrens. Mutual reciprocity and cooperation!

• Instinct by MB Coggins, 6/27/98