At the very least, I manage to make trips to the wood pile several times a day, so that has to count for a daily natural history walk... particularly when I'm looking around at nature, packing my camera, and, most importantly, paying attention to what's going on. Sweating the small stuff is key to success in this endeavor. And while I was homing in on the details, I noticed a small bird working the brush that I'd piled near the firewood. The dun-colored creature was definitely playing hard to get and, every so often, it would simply disappear as it probed the spaces between the twigs and leaves. No doubt it was searching for sustenance in the form of tiny invertebrates, and the Winter Wren, the first of the season, was also on the lookout for a good place to shelter from the cold. Every year I assemble a new brush collection as a kind of Winter Wren welcome mat. Every year I have takers. I'll leave the proverbial light on for the birds.