The Bird Bottle

On a trip to Williamsburg I fell in love with the bird bottles on some of the buildings. Birds seemed to like them, too.
I didn’t have enough spare cash to buy one and didn’t much want to carry it around all day. I could order one from the catalogue later. Like most things I put off, I never got around to ordering one.
A bird bottle is a red ware jug about a foot high with the bottom cut out. If you sit it on its bottom, it looks like a jar, but it is meant to be hung. The top becomes the side opening. After you hang it, you can insert a stick for a perch.
My friend has one by his back door with a wren family in it.
While searching for wool sweaters at Goodwill, I found a perfectly intact bird bottle for fifty cents.
The clerk warned me that the bottom was broken out of it. I started to explain why it wasn’t broken, but her eyes glazed over, so I gave up and took my bottle home.
It stayed empty on the north wall of my garage for two years. One morning there was a stick inside it. The next morning two more. For the past three years we have had a family of wrens make their home there. This year I cleaned out all the sticks, washed out and re-hung the bottle I had given up on the family returning but this morning I saw the head poking out and sure enough they brought new sticks and are back in residence.