The Wrens and the Tiger Deon Matzen   © Copyright 2024 by Deon Matzen

Photo by Alexandre Loureiro at Pexels.

This is the time of year when lots of birds start to migrate south and have stop-overs in my yard. Recently it was the varied thrush, hundreds come through and flocks of them are in my woodland yard. They are very shy and fly away quickly if they see me looking out the kitchen window onto the back patio while they are using the two birdbaths that are out there.

We hear the calling of the Canada geese as they take off from the nearby marsh each morning, honking and can, even sometimes, hear the flapping of their wings. We do have resident geese that stay year round, but lots of these large birds migrate right overhead.

The snow geese have passed through, millions in number and we have seen them darken the entire sky as they come in to settle for the night in open fields near where we live. We often go to watch them and are amazed at the numbers that come through. They blanket hundreds of acres each night during their migrations.

I guess you get the idea about birds seeking a warmer refuge for the winter season.

This year November is particularly warm. We are experiencing temperatures in the low 50s rather than in the usual high 40s that is the norm.

Some of our local birds do not migrate, but seek warm places to winter. Some are more inventive than others. Wrens are one of these. During most of the year we will only see one or two at a time, seldom whole flocks.

Many years ago when we were building our house and finishing it piece by piece, the upstairs area did not have drywall on the ceiling. The upstairs was to be the last in the piecemeal way we were finishing our residence.

Mice are another varmint that likes to seek warmth. Because the house was not complete, it was easy for them to sneak in to the warmer confines of our lower story. To remedy the problem we acquired an orange, tiger-striped kitten which we named Tigger, of course. He started primarily as an indoor cat, too young to be wandering the forests around our home. He was more into snuggling then hunting. This was fine for the time being but mousing was supposed to be his purpose. We hoped as he matured he would get the idea. Meanwhile, mousetraps were set up in places he was apt to miss.

The stairway up to the unfinished second floor was open with no door, which it now has. It was easy for Tigger to run up and down the stairs, which he loved to do, sometimes pounding on them as he bounded up and down. He liked to play on the stairs.

I didn’t think much of the noise that was being made, assuming that it was Tigger racing up and down the stairs, but it continued for some time, so I called to him and he did not come to me.

I looked on the stairs and all around the first floor of the house, but couldn’t find him. “Tigger, Tigger, where are you.” Crash upstairs. I guessed I should go up and check out what was happening.

I am halfway up the stairway when I see Tigger fly through the air and land with a loud thump. But this was not the most interesting part. He was growling and howling loudly and a very generous spray of saliva was spewing from his mouth. Remember this is a young cat, probably a teenager in cat years. What was going on?

I climbed the stairs further to be enveloped in a cloud (flock) of wrens that were frantically streaming from one end of the upstairs to the other with Tigger in hot pursuit.

I could hardly believe what was happening. Firstly, why was there a flock of birds in my house, and secondly, when had my Tigger developed this immature hunting instinct? He obviously hadn’t achieved any hunting skills at the point, but he was really trying. I guess these tiny birds had whetted his appetite, thus the generous amount of saliva.

I took Tigger back downstairs and closed him in the bathroom so I could deal with the birds. I opened the upstairs windows and tried to herd them toward that direction. The freezing cold air outside must have meant something to them because they swarmed out like a stream of smoke and were gone.

Needless to say, Tigger raced right back upstairs as soon as he was released from his prison in the bathroom. He was very disappointed, however. He then decided it was time that he try his hand at mousing which he managed quite well.

I never did figure how all those wrens managed to get into the house!