Habitat for a wren?

Yesterday when our oak tree was being lopped, I asked the young lad who was helping with the clearing away of the branches if he could keep some back and throw them in a pile right at the back of the garden, amongst the ivy. I explained that I’m trying to create some ideal habitat to encourage wrens to come and visit.

You can probably guess from my Blipname that I’m fond of these delightful, tiny creatures! However, despite them being the most common bird in the UK, I hardly ever see a wren in my garden and I’ve been trying to work out what might induce them to pay us a visit. I have bought a nesting box and also some little roosting pockets, which will be installed once the tree work has been completed. The pockets have two holes, a smallish one on one side and then a tiny one on the opposite side, which are only really suitable for wrens. Guess which side I will have facing the front!

Hopefully these lichen-covered logs and twigs will rot down and produce a suitable habitat for my little friends.

Jenny Wren by W. H. Davies

Her sight is short, she comes quite near;
A foot to me's a mile to her;
And she is known as Jenny Wren,
The smallest bird in England. When
I heard that little bird at first,
Methought her frame would surely burst
With earnest song. Oft had I seen
Her running under leaves so green,
Or in the grass when fresh and wet,
As though her wings she would forget.
And, seeing this, I said to her --
'My pretty runner, you prefer
To be a thing to run unheard
Through leaves and grass, and not a bird!'
'Twas then she burst, to prove me wrong,
Into a sudden storm of song;
So very loud and earnest, I
Feared she would break her heart and die.
'Nay, nay,' I laughed, 'be you no thing
To run unheard, sweet scold, but sing!
O I could hear your voice near me,
Above the din in that oak tree,
When almost all the twigs on top
Had starlings singing without stop.'