Leah and I were at the Tractor Supply store near Rome a couple of days ago, looking for a possible new cat house, when it kind of gradually dawned on us that there were a lot of birds chirping nearby.
Can you see them on top of the stack of fence gates? A whole flock of little brown birds, either wrens or sparrows (I can’t tell the difference). I’m not sure why they were sitting there. It was a gray and slightly misty day, but it’s possible the stack of gates might have collected enough solar heat to give them a little extra warmth.
I listened to the songs of the wren and sparrow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, but I can’t tell which sounds more like what I remember of these birds’ song.
It was odd to see them there, but the funny thing was that they sang as long as we didn’t look at them. When we looked at them, they fell completely silent. It we looked away, they began to sing again. Shy little birds.
While I can’t see them clearly atop the fence, I suspect these are heisenbirds. They’re deeply connected at the quantum level. Upon examination, they cease to exist. They pop back up as soon as you look away.
Oh – I should say that the mere fact that I can’t see them clearly atop the fence should be sufficient proof of my identification.
They’re not on the fence, they’re on the big stack of squares of fencing material.
Wayne — That explains a lot. I would go back and check on them, but they’re probably already in an alternate universe.
Mark: I suspect they’re sparrows (of the two options you gave us readers). I tried to enlarge the image, but it became too pixelated to distinguish and details on the birds. I’ve never seen this many wrens gathered together at one time, but seeing this many sparrows together is not unusual.
Scott — I trust your judgement on the bird ID. Unfortunately I had only my phone to take the picture, and I didn’t want to get closer for fear of scaring the birds away.
They’re definitely sparrows – I can make out one male house (English) sparrow very clearly. Wrens are shaped very differently – they have a high, straight tail and a long curved beak.
Also wrens don’t tend to travel in big groups like that – they move as pairs, though often you only see one of them at a time.
Ridger — My father would have know what they were. I guess I didn’t pay enough attention when he identified birds. I’m slowly catching up.
I vote for sparrows. I think it’s pretty cool how they were hanging out together in such an odd place. Maybe warmth and maybe a bit of melted snow for water and bugs.
Robin — I wondered why they congregated where they did, but I couldn’t check it out without scaring them away.