House Wrens

In my yard ( I am on only a quarter acre ) I have several nesting boxes. Some are for sparrows or whoever gets there first, but I have 6 boxes for the house wrens that visit yearly. Three of these boxes are near my deck and are at various altitudes. The other three are in pine trees or bushes near the rear of the yard.

Each year I enoy the antics of the wrens. The male arrives in late March and will build nests in 3 to 4 or the boxes. He finds twigs, grass, and whatever nesting material he can and loads the boxes. He takes breaks during the building process to fly high into a tree and sing. This is how he attracts a mate. He is very industrious and persistant. Build, sing, build, sing.... On it goes until he finally gets a female to come visit.

When at last he attracts a female wren, he takes her around to all the boxes and shows her the nests he has built. She inspects each and every inch of each nest and SHE decides which one will be home. Upon making this decision, she invariably proceeds to haul out some of the nesting material and replaces it with "better" building material. I am facinsted by this sequence of events because it seems to parralell human life. We date, marry, and the woman takes over the nest....

Anyway, this year the female wren chose the nest box hanging on my arbor. It is only feet away from my favorite chair on the deck and so I have a front row seat to the whole process. She is sinnting on eggs now and I will soon be the proud "grandpa" of 4 - 5 bouncing young wrens. I will keep you posted on the process....


Bob Johnson