When I heard a small critter scuttling around inside this dead log at Negro Bar State Park, I just assumed it was a squirrel. But instead, out popped this busy little Bewick’s Wren. Luckily, it paused in its labors just long enough for me to shoot a few pictures.

Nimble and acrobatic, Bewick’s Wrens often hang upside down as they glean insects and spiders from trunks, branches, and leaves. They usually forage in the undergrowth less than 10 feet up, or peck at the ground between short hops. Occasionally they’ll catch insects on the wing. Seizing a prey animal in its bill, a Bewick’s Wren crushes it, shakes it, or bashes it against a branch. Having thus subdued its food, the wren swallows it whole. After a meal, this bird like many others may use its twig perch as a napkin, wiping its bill as many as 100 times — Cornell Lab of Ornithology