The Troglodyte

There is no shortage of wrens in this part of Sutherland. They're most often heard before they're seen: the wren may be one of our smallest birds but it's renowned for its loud and often complex, scolding song.

They're usually to be seen in tangled undergrowth, often around the base of trees, and almost always perched on a vantage point from which they can see what's going on.

So at first sight this great pile of rocks which forms the sea wall to the southwest of Golspie hardly looks an attractive place for a wren to call home but....

....this one lives there very happily. It's an appropriate dwelling: the Eurasian wren is Troglodytes troglodytes, a troglodyte being a cave dweller, so this must seem like a multi-roomed palace.

Our wrens are a member of a very successful family, there being something like 88 different species within the Troglodytidae worldwide.