Birds in the Night

Awakened from a sound sleep, Tidbit, my little Terrier, let me know of her need to pay a visit to the outside world. Groggily, I padded to the back hall were I switched on the light, then moved on to the outside door and the porch light. It was then an ear-piercing scream shattered the sound barrier and shook my well being. I froze where I stood and let out a few shrieks of my own. It took a few moments before my sleep-glazed mind could focus on the source of this raucous, nerve-jangling eruption.

Wrens had built a nest on one of the ledges along the outside wall of our back hallway. It sat there seemingly vacant and untended for weeks so I paid it little heed. Besides, it had been well over a month since I had spotted a couple of wrens flit through an opening close to the roof.

Now, as I studied the nest, I discovered a mother wren wildly flapping her white-spotted wings and screeching her alarm. Behind her,in the protection of the nest, were two or three chicks. I didn't get close enough for an exact count and didn't want to even if the mother wren would have let me.

With Tidbit safely back in the house and the lights off, I made an attempt to resume my interrupted sleep. This was not to be. Though the noise had long ago ceased, it echoed and bounced around in my brain until night turned to day.

That morning I went to check the nest and found mother wren and chicks gone. Had it been a dream?