Wready for wrens!

Yesterday, while out running errands, I stopped at the local garden center to purchase a replacement birdhouse for the one that finally fell from our backyard tree and broke into firewood. Luckily, it was vacant at the time. Each spring, during the first week of May, the wrens arrive like clockwork in our neighborhood. One usually lands on our deck rail and bursts into song. A wren's song is such a pleasure to listen to, the least I can do is provide them a home.
This morning Mr. Gadget was good enough to hang the birdhouse from the tree. He tied the end of a nylon cord to his hammer and hefted it up over a high branch. Then he pulled and tugged till it was in just the right spot. I heaped on the praise for his manly strength and good aim. I'll be needing his help again soon when I finally get around to buying some bags of mulch for the planting beds, so plenty of compliments can't hurt.

"Hoist it up a little higher," I suggested. "We don't want the deer poking their noses in and disturbing the baby birds."

"That's perfect!" Oops! Looks like I forgot to take the price tag off. Oh well. The birds won't notice. Well, I hope they won't notice. If they see what I paid for this little piece of real estate, they might be expecting me to furnish it too.

My neighbor has been luring bluebirds and chickadees to her yard. She's not particularly fond of wrens. She says they're aggressive and unfriendly to other birds. So I've assured her I'll keep them over here on my side of the street. Now that I think about it, maybe I should have considered a bribe. I should be able to wrangle a jar of her tasty home-grown tomato sauce out of this deal.....