News

Happy first day of Kwanzaa a couple of days late. It was also St. Stephen’s day, when once boys went around with rocks killing wrens, and going around asking for pennies in Britain, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, and Scotland. Other than the fact that Stephen was stoned to death, I can’t find anything to connect him to the annual avian slaughter. My guess after looking at some old folk tunes is that the wren represented a type of seasonal king. A type of Oak or Holly King, or Greenman. It was traditional that when the sun was reborn that the old “sun” had to die first. We have a remnant of that in America even today. Old father time and baby new year.
To celebrate St. Stephen’s day what I’ve started doing is putting out extra bird food in the feeders, make sure the poor cold birds have fresh water in the new heated bird bath that was one of my Christmas presents. I also put out bird seed wreaths and bells on a special tree in our yard. Our libation tree. Every yard should have a special tree, or two. I feel like helping the birds live longer is sort of a nice way to celebrate what must have once been a grisly day for the poor wrens. Around here we have two species of wren. House wren and Bewick’s wren. Feed the birds, save the wrens, everybody play nice.
I’m back to work.