Make Up Your Mind, Carolina Wren

Dear Carolina Wren,

Which is it: tea-kettle or wheat-eater? I mean, of course, your song--or how it sounds to human ears.    When you're flitting amongst the trees or hiding inside bushes, we humans can't always see you. Yet we can never miss your songs, sung so loudly but sweetly.  And your song is how I  identify you.  That's why I need to know, once and for all, which is your song: tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea  or  wheat-eater, wheat-eater, wheat-eater, wheat?

It's a bit frustrating, you see.   Seems like wherever I go, you're singing a different song.  For instance, when I lived in Morrisdale, Pennsylvania (Clearfield County), I knew your song as chirpity, chirpity, chirpity, chirp. Then I took a birding trip to Arkansas, where all the Carolina Wrens were singing tea-kettle.  This confounded me so much that I wrote about it (see my April 13, 2009 post).

Yet here I am again, with the same problem.  One year ago (tomorrow), I moved to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  For some months, I've been listening to birds in the woodland behind my property singing wheat-eater, wheat-eater, wheat-eater, wheat.  And though the song sounded familiar, I knew that "wheat-eater," so perfectly pronounced, was not a song I had ever heard.  Finally, just yesterday, I heard it again, but this time in the maple tree outside my bedroom window.  I scoured the naked branches, searching for the mystery singer only to discover--WHAT?  Why, that's a Carolina Wren.

Apparently I'm a bit slow when it comes to synthesizing sounds.  I'll admit it.  I've been listening to some YouTube videos of Carolina Wrens and found this fellow who most sounds like my local wrens.  Though his could also be construed as tea-kettle.  I'll let you decide.

Until next time . . . Keep birds in your heart!

Georgia Anne