Mealworms and Stink Bugs...tasty winter treats for Carolina Wrens!

Mealworms
There's no denying the Carolina Wrens in our backyard love mealworms (beetle larva), so to keep them happy I hide a stash of the larva in a tiny ceramic birdhouse in a pot on our deck. The entry hole in the birdhouse is small enough for a wren but not a starling, so the mealworms don't disappear in a hurry when the starlings (who also love them) descend in a mad feeding frenzy. Funny thing is, when the little birdhouse runs dry, the happy Carolina Wrens let me know they are unhappy by perching above the tiny house and sending me accusatory glares...

If that's not an accusatory glare I don't know what one is. 
"Where are my mealworms, woman?" seems to radiate from his adorable puffed-up self.  

Waiting...waiting...waiting for a refill...
(Is he tapping his little bird toenail in annoyance?)

...emerging from the tiny house fueled up on mealworm protein and ready for dessert...stink bugs!

Marmorated Stink Bugs 
This winter the Carolina Wrens have been especially spritely and chippy on our deck, and Rick and I have loved watching them. They've also developed a new habit...scouring the curtains fastened at the corners of our "Big Tent." It's not really a big tent, I just call it that. It's one of those canvas gazebo things we've anchored to our deck. It works really well in the summer keeping the sun off us, and, apparently, it works really well in the winter as a super secret hiding place for stink bugs trying to overwinter in peace. Unfortunately for the stink bugs, our Carolina Wrens have found them out. One day I noticed the folds in the curtains moving when suddenly a Carolina Wren popped out. He had a clearly identifiable Marmorated Stink Bug in his bill. He threw the bug down and proceeded to peck at it and then eat it. "Whoa, that's cool," went through my mind, so I watched for more. He immediately flew back up to the curtain, dove in and came back out with another Marmorated Stink Bug. Over the next few weeks, our Carolina Wrens spent a lot of time searching for and finding stink bugs in the curtains. The activity has lessened, so I think all the tasty treats have been found.

Our "Big Tent" 

The folds in the fastened curtains have become a hiding place for stink bugs.
The folds have also become a treasure trove of a winter protein source for our backyard Carolina Wrens. 

I wondered if Carolina Wrens eating overwintering stink bugs was a thing, or if ours just stumbled on the pests and were "making do" in winter, so I looked it up, and it's a thing! Carolina Wrens love stink bugs, and stink bugs like to overwinter in groups, so when they find one stink bug, they look for more in the same location. Stink bugs release an "aggregation pheromone" to attract other buddies to their super secret winter hiding places or to good feeding sources, which is why so many were hidden the folds of the curtains. Carolina wrens are cavity nesters, and they regularly search crevices and cavities for insects. Since they also take well to man-made nest boxes, it was inevitable that the wrens would search in the man-made crevices of the curtains and end up finding their winter prey.  (When insects "overwinter" they enter a hibernation-like state called "diapause.")

We never use the curtains on the Big Tent, so early this summer I thought I might take them down, but then I forgot to do it! I'm glad I forgot...and I'm also glad I didn't know the stink bugs were slowly gathering for the big winter sleep (or I would have taken them down). Now...next winter our Carolina Wrens will again  have easy hidden treats to find.

Reference links to find out more about Marmorated Stink Bugs and the aggregation pheromone:

  United States Department of Agriculture (July 16, 2014): "ASDA Researchers Identify Stink Bug Attractant"

  EntomologyToday (July 16, 2014): "Scientists Decipher Stink Bug Aggregation Pheromone"

  Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station: FAQ "Monitoring for the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug"

  The Journal of Natural Products, 2014, 77 (7), pp 1708-1717: "Discovery of the Aggregation Pheromone 
  of the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (Halyomorpha halys) through the Creation of Stereoisomeric 
  Libraries of 1-Bisabolen-3-ols"

Carolina Wren blinking snowflakes out of his eye...

...this little Carolina Wren stopped eating the suet for a while and started watching the snowflakes falling. I don't think he was keen on them, though, because he kept blinking them out of his eyes--such a cute fella! (...from the snow last weekend)


Carolina Wren blinking snowflakes out of his eye from Kelly Riccetti on Vimeo.

...just a few closeups of the bar pattern on a Carolina Wren's wings:

Carolina Wren in the snow.

Red decides he's just as clingy as any Carolina Wren...

Around our house, Red and his buddies usually stay off the hanging suet feeder. Red doesn't like to cling to things like nuthatches, wrens, woodpeckers, and chickadees do. He likes to perch at a table...it's more refined he says, but when snowstorms break out, anything goes...

I was photographing the Carolina Wren on the suet feeder when Red decided he wanted in on the action. 

He with the flame red head...and body!
It was fun to watch this male Northern Cardinal peck away at the suet. Normally Red stays on a platform feeder or on the ground...or on a perching feeder. In our backyard, I've never seen a cardinal clinging to a vertically hanging suet feeder for a prolonged time (I've seen them try every now and then, and get a bite or two, but only briefly). This fella adapted quickly and came back all afternoon, but none of the other cardinals joined him. 

I'm glad one of our Northern Cardinals decided to cling on the suet feeder and eat this high-calorie treat. The snowstorm coming in was moving fast, dumping lots of snow, and the temperatures were falling. The extra calories would help him pack on the fat he would need to get through the night.   

...way to expand your horizons, Red!

For beauty in winter, look to the birds...

A Carolina Chickadee perched in a bare tree amid plummeting temperatures and snow flurries embodies winter's beauty...

A Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis) in the snow. 

Chickadees are fluffy little balls of beauty. They are spritely and chipper and their flank and belly feathers, washed in soft winter whites, creams, and buffs, are a subtle complement to the season. Coal-black caps and bibs contrast dramatically with their white cheeks, creating a target that draws the eye in...almost like an X marking the spot. It's good design! ...and it's welcome beauty in winter.

A chickadee looks up as snowflakes whip past on a strong arctic breeze. The chickadee takes it all in stride with nary a feather out of place...impeccably dressed in a classic winter palette. 

While cold winds rage, a chickadee will still sing out its happy and cheerful song. The sound of those sweet notes cutting through cold and gray days is soothing and hopeful, and its magic adds to the bird's charm and beauty. I never tire of hearing a chickadee's sassy chatter. I bet if they did a scientific study, researchers would find a chickadee's call lowers cortisol levels in humans...Chiggy Therapy (sign me up)! 

Beauty in winter is not hard to find when you look to the birds.

...a tiny tilt of the head amplifies the cute ratio of this bird. Chiggy...are you playing with us? If you are, don't stop! 

The Polar Vortex
...what a winter this has been! Rick just told me they are forecasting 17 below zero Monday night. So far, our birds seem to be weathering this arctic blast very well, but we haven't hit 17 below yet. We are worried about our Carolina Wrens. In our area, Carolina Wrens are susceptible to extreme cold and may not survive. These southern wrens have expanded their range north, so they are not equipped to survive long arctic snaps like we are having now. As I was writing this, however, our little Carolina Wren appeared outside the window as if he wanted to put my heart at ease. He sang out his happy song and seems to be faring well in the sub-zero temps we have endured so far. I hope he can weather the incredible cold headed our way.

Click here to go to the Great Backyard Bird Count data page that details the Carolina Wren's shifting range. The last die-off was back in 1977-78. It took 10 years for the Carolina Wren's population to restore to current numbers. That was also the winter we lost all of our Bobwhites.

Click here for an article in The Nature Conservancy that lists other animals at risk from the arctic temperatures riding in on the Polar Vortex.

...on the brighter side, the extreme cold of the polar vortex might wipe out emerald ash borer larvae. Click here to read an article about it. To read about the dangers of the invasive emerald ash borer to native ash trees, click here.

A grumpy Carolina Wren demands mealworms...

While I was working in the kitchen earlier today, the strident scolding and squawking of a Carolina Wren caused me to look out back. "Oooops...sorry fella," I said through the glass. He was nonplussed with my response and scolded me some more, hopping from the peanut feeder, to the ground, to the table and back, just like a little kid stamping his feet and screaming for candy. You don't have to speak wren to know what he was saying...

"Gimme my mealworms, now!" 

A Carolina Wren hangs on a suet feeder. Usually he's happy with the suet treat, but when it snows, he demands mealworms.

Grumpy little thing....

...grumpier little thing!

A pouting Carolina Wren cannot be ignored, so I did what any well-trained bird lover would do. 
I got on my coat and boots and went out in the snow to refill the feeder!

Uhhhh ohhhh.....guess who else likes mealworms?
A Starling was the first bird to return to the deck after I refilled the mealworm feeder.

The Starling quickly snapped up the mealworms on the ground. 

...but no worries for the Carolina Wren. He knows I put mealworms in this tiny ceramic bird house. It's too small for a Starling to fit in, but a Carolina Wren can easily poke his head in and nab a mealworm.

...yes C.W., next time I'll do a better job keeping the mealworms replenished!

Click here for other posts over the years of our mealworm-eating Carolina Wrens.

Economy of brushstrokes...

These paintings all fall under "economy of brush strokes." I wanted to see how few strokes and how little detail was needed to capture the feel of the bird (I used no pencil marks either...just worked with the paint brush). The first in the series was the wren. By the time I got to the chickadee I found I didn't need many brush strokes at all to come up with a likeness...

(check out the date on the paintings. I wrote 1-2011...that's so me. At least I got the month right!).

Painting 212. Chickadee Light

(watercolor, cold-pressed paper)

Painting 211. Robin Redbreast

(watercolor, cold-pressed paper)

Painting 210. Northern Cardinal Aflame

(watercolor, smooth hot-pressed paper)

Painting 209. Carolina Wren

(watercolor, cold-pressed paper)

...more paintings for Laure Ferlita's 100 Paintings Challenge.

If you're an artist looking for a challenge, join up!

Classic Carolina Wren

A Carolina Wren makes everybody smile!

I recently restocked my mealworm feeder (a tiny birdhouse), and within three days this Carolina Wren found the stash. Two days later, he brought a little friend with him. Now I have two Carolinas singing out to the world their hearty praises of mealworms. I love to hear that song (loud and demanding) in the dead of winter!

...a quick sketch of a watery spring wren

Painting 146. Spring Wren Dripping Waterdrops

(Watercolor, 9x10 Arches Cold Pressed 140 lb paper)

Spritely behind leaves...

Spring wren dripping waterdrops

...has a job to do.

Carolina Wren - 1, Starlings - 0

In the winter, our little Carolina Wren loves to eat freeze-dried mealworms. She will pass up everything else just to get to those crunchy little treats. Unfortunately, since the ground is now frozen solid and covered in snow, our massive starling flocks (from the local night-time roost) have started showing up at the feeders. While the ground was soft, they were content to dig grubs and other invertebrates out of the earth and pass our feeders by, but now that the ground is frozen solid, the crunchy, protein-rich dried mealworms must be the next best thing to live grubs. Mealworms are the larval (or grub) stage of a beetle, so it only makes sense. When a daytime flock swoops in, the mealworms can disappear in minutes, and then our sweet little Carolina Wren is not happy...

"I'm not happy. Where are my well-deserved crunchy freeze-dried mealworms?"

"I've looked left...and I've looked right...but nary an amber-colored crunchy is to be seen!"

"...look harder little wren! I hid them to keep them safe for you..."

"...what's in here?"

"Mealworms! Hundreds of them, I tell you!"

"Now that's more like it!"

So far, the starlings have left the wicker birdhouse alone, and only the Carolina Wren has been brave enough to peer in and find what she was looking for. The birdhouse is only about 4 feet from the kitchen door, so that might be discouraging some of the birds. Our Carolina Wren, however, is never afraid! I'll let you know if this system continues to work...

Carolina Wren in three different styles...for the challenge

Painting #72, Carolina Wren in Carmel

9x12 Acrylic Paper, Acrylic

I love the rich, carmel tones in this painting, and it's total luck that they are there because I almost tossed this painting (and if you look layer by layer, underneath you'll find two other completed paintings). The first time it had a bright green summer background and the bird was realistic, but with all the browns and golds outside the bright green didn't feel right, so I scraped most of it off and painted it again, this time making the bird more impressionistic and bringing in darker greens, but I wasn't keen on it either and thought about tossing it, but an idea popped into my head, so I scraped the painting again and rubbed what was left on the canvas paper smooth. A blurred image of a bird barely visible in a sea of green remained. I then used autumn colors and painted by feel, adding in all the darks and caramels with just a few paint strokes. If you look closely, you can see the deep greens showing through here and there. The bird went from a realistic rendering to one with almost no detail at all.

Painting #73, Carolina Wren in Leather

9x12 Acrylic Paper, Acrylic

I can't remember what lies under this painting, but there's a lot of it...whatever it is. The first time I painted this little Carolina Wren, it was realistic. It was a perfectly good finished painting. It was night, and Matty was working on his homework in the kitchen, and I was across from him painting. I started with a paintbrush dipped in Burnt Umber and created the bird with a sketchy outline...then added in more and more detail. We both liked the painting, so I set it aside to dry. The next morning all the paints were still out on the island, and I thought it needed "a little something." So while Matty ate his breakfast, I started squeezing out paint....and smearing it in with a palette knife. That poor little bird had five or six lives with the palette knife as I slowly figured out how to use it. It's super fun, and I'll definitely use one again. By the time this little fellow emerged, I was late for work and had paint on my cheek...and neck...and hairline...and didn't know it until my friend gave me the crazy eye trying to figure out "what is that on your cheek?" In life, this painting looks like it's been carved from leather. The scan doesn't really show that, though.

Painting #74, Carolina Wren in Watercolor

9x12 Arches Rough Watercolor Paper, Watercolor

I drew and painted this little fellow over a period of three 15- to 20-minute stints sitting in my car as I waited to pick Matty up from school. I'd just crawl over to the passenger seat and pull out the ref photo and watercolor block and start sketching and painting. Water brushes come with their own water supply, so they make it easy. Can you tell I used the same photo ref for this painting and the previous painting #73? Same bird...different feel.

"...more mealworms, please!" said the Carolina Wren.

The first time I opened a big container of mealworms, I have to admit I was a bit "unnerved" through fear! There were hundreds and hundreds of these amber-colored segmented wormy things with tiny little legs at the front of their bodies and creepy, squiggly looking mouth parts at their tip, but I got over that soon enough, and now they don't phase me--especially because I know our resident Carolina Wren loves them, loves them, can't live without them. She has made them her favorite, so now they are mine too.

I almost put a closeup of the crunchy freeze-dried delights right here, but refrained in case any of the uninitiated were still a bit squeamish a the sight of hundreds of their wormy little bodies. As you can see, our little Carolina Wren is not one bit squeamish...

...demonstrating the proper way to eat a mealworm--shake it into submission and gobble it down!

"...I just adore the heads and save them for last."

"...hmmm....mealworm or blueberry, mealworm or blueberry..." (The mealworm won.)

"...more mealworms, please...and could you put a move on--it's cold out here!"

p.s. Mealworms are the larva form of the mealworm beetle, Tenebrio molitor, which is a type of darkling beetle. Apparently you can grow these things on your own fairly easily so you can always have fresh on hand (oh boy...talk about unnerving!). I might have to look into that this summer...can you imagine?? Click here for a link on raising mealworms on your own.

Sing out little wren...

...I like knowing you're out there as I work at my desk.

Carolina Wren singing on a small trellis on my deck.

What a happy little bird the Carolina Wren was today, or if he wasn't, he at least made me happy. This morning as I fried an egg, he sang, and hopped and sang again. Busy with unknown duties, he sometimes would break from his constant busy twitching and sing out. I could see him on the trellis in the flower pot, almost eye level with me. Every now and then he would grab a seed or a piece of fruit, only to return to his perch later to sing again, and I would stop what I was doing and watch him...

Happy St. Valentine’s Day from the Great Blue Heron Heronry!

Tonight I went to the heronry at 5:30. When I arrived two herons were flying in with me! It was 51 degrees, but the temperature was dropping rapidly because the sun was beginning to set. All together, there were 21 herons in two trees. In five days, the number of Great Blue Herons at the heronry had gone from 3 to 21, and of those, 7 pairs had definitely formed:

Love is in the branches at the heronry!

If you look at the nests, you can see both mates are standing, letting you know no eggs have been laid. When egg-laying starts, one of each couple will hunker down in the nests to keep the eggs warm. Both the male and the female take turns incubating the eggs. The eggs hatch after about a month. 

There is a chance the number of formed couples may already be larger than 7. As you can see in the photo, several herons are standing in nests by themselves, so their mates might still have been out fishing. As I was driving home, I saw a heron flying low in the sky. I assume he was returning to the rookery, but I didn’t include him in the count, because I didn’t see him in a tree with the colony.

Love was not only in the branches, it was in the bushes right where I was standing. Two little Carolina Wrens were hopping back and forth looking for a nesting site. They kept going in and out of a little cavity formed in the crook of a tree. When I first arrived they were so noisy with their scolding. Clearly I was interrupting their house hunting expedition, but after about 5 minutes, they calmed down and worked around me. They stayed around the entire time I was there.

One half of the happy little Carolina Wren couple...

Our Little Carolina Wren

What’s cute, round, and loves to chatter?

Hmmph! Why, me…of course!

Was there ever any question?