There is a family of Eurasian wrens (Troglodytes troglodytes) sharing a winter territory in the copse to the north east of the big pond. Have you seen them?
The wren is one of our commonest birds, very widely distributed, with an estimated population of eight million breeding pairs. They are tiny birds, only the goldcrest is smaller, and they live most of their lives in deep cover, difficult to see and even harder to photograph.
The male is highly territorial during the breeding season and he announces his claim with surprisingly loud song. He builds several unlined nests for visiting females to choose from and when one of the females has made her choice, the pair line the nest together, with moss, hair and feathers.
The male defends his territory vigorously while he and his mate are rearing young but come winter, his behaviour changes. Wrens store very little body fat and, in the winter, keeping warm can be a problem; in fact, some authorities have estimated that a severe winter can kill half our wren population. The male wren with the most suitably accommodating territory will invite other wrens in the area to share his winter roost. He calls and makes short flights to announce that he has the room to do this.
Wren singing by Keith Gallie [CC BY 2.0]
The birds huddle together for warmth, with their heads pointing inwards, sometimes in astonishing numbers. In 1969, in Norfolk, 61 wrens were counted coming out of the same nesting box and in February of 1979, somewhere in Gloucestershire, over 90 wrens were found to be roosting in the eaves of a single cottage.
The male wren, whose territory in the copse is being used as a winter roost, will usually mate with one of the females that has shared his roost. His behaviour, therefore, in inviting other wrens to overwinter with him may not be as altruistic as it first seems: he not only stays warm all winter but, in the spring, he will get first choice of all the females in the immediate area.
A wren’s nest with nestlings
The header picture is by Ian on Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0) Wren song recorded by W. Agster
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 
We sit in our conservatory each morning and watch a wren foraging around in our spring tubs. There are greenfly in them, and she is doing a good job of picking them off. It’s the only time we have been pleased to see greenfly!
We back onto the Lambrok Stream on Chantry Gardens, and yesterday an Egret was sitting up in a tree on the opposite side, in the field. We had one which regularly flew over our garden last summer. I wonder if it’s the same one.
Yesterday, I saw footprints in the Lambrok in the park and wondered if it might be an egret; it seems it might well have been.
For three or four years little egrets have nested in the fields behind Blind Lane. Several small streams merge here to form what the Environment Agency now class as the RIVER Lambrok. The river runs through the bottom of some gardens in Blind Lane and last summer I happened across a little egret here. I don’t know who was the most surprised when it flew up into my face. Being close as the crow flies to Chantry Gardens I’m not surprised these Little egrets are venturing further afield and probably as far as the Country Park.
They ARE on our species list but it would be nice to see them as frequent visitors.