Youngsters
get to know the young hero and the adventures
that carry him toward manhood. As they come to know Jeremiah as a friend who would
understand their own growing pains, they look forward to each book in the
series.
Teachers
will Achieve..
Teachers will appreciate the ways
that Jeremiah Stokely novels, kits, and activities make literature
meaningful to children. Teachers can download free classroom idea
packets to hold a hand-on workshop based on each book.
Click the >Play button
to listen to the bird's song!
Carolina Wren (Thryothorus
ludovicianus)
Length 5˝ in., wingspan 7˝ in., Family Troglodytidae
The small Carolina Wren makes up for its size with a
big song. It sings vigorously all day long, all year, not just during
breeding season. Its song sounds like “tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea-kettle,
tea” or “tweedle, tweedle, tweedle.”
The Carolina is more colorful than other wrens. Its
back, head and tail are bright rust-brown, marked faintly with “tweedy”
bars. It has a rich peach underside, a noticeable white eyebrow, and a long
curved beak. It darts busily from bush to bush in open woodlands, parks and
suburban neighborhoods, flipping its short tail up and down when it perches.
The female and male look alike.
The wren’s diet consists almost entirely of insects,
including caterpillars, beetles, and moths. It forages in the undergrowth
for its food, but will come to a flat tray feeder occasionally.
Carolina wrens mate for life, and pairs stay together
all year. They select their nest site together, often choosing a nest hole
abandoned by a woodpecker. They are also known to nest in mailboxes, cars,
tin cans, houses, even in pockets of coats on clotheslines! The female lays
five speckled cream-colored eggs and tends them until they hatch two weeks
later. Both parents feed the nestlings.
The
Carolina Wren is the state bird of South Carolina, but inhabits the entire
eastern half of the U.S.
