Although wrens are quite common in the UK, they can be difficult to observe, preferring to stay under the cover of dense shrubbery and reed plants. On many occasions I’ve listened to their beautiful song without even a glimpse of the actual bird, while other times I’ve found myself madly trying to keep up with furtive glimpses of their quick, nervous movements amongst the foliage to no avail. During my visit to the UK in 2024, I was fortunate to spend a good amount of time at Sculpture by the Lakes, an absolutely idyllic botanical garden and sculpture park created by famed sculptor Simon Gudgeon and his wife Monique.

Luck was on my side one morning, and I was able to watch a particularly bold wren singing his heart out from various vantage points in the birch forest. In this study, I was almost as interested in the dense tangle of twigs as I was in the sprightly little bird. With their fairly sedate, barred brown plumage, it’s easy to see how this delicate little bird could be completely lost from view in its habitat. Of course, it isn’t the wren’s coloration that makes it an interesting subject, but rather the jaunty poses the bird tends to strike. I was very keen on capturing the bird’s attitude when it is signing at full volume, and I hope that those viewers who know the liquid music of the wren can hear it in their heads upon seeing this image.