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<\/a><\/p>\nThe Many Wrens of Riverwood Conservancy, Mississauga<\/h2>\n
I cheerfully admit I am not great at identifying wrens in the field. They are small. They are fast. And they have very unique songs that I seem unable to memorize. So I always try to photograph them and then I can look them up later and get the opinion of experts.<\/p>\n
This time, however, I finally had a Wren who wanted me to notice all of its features. It stayed still! It sang\u2014which would make identification deadly simple for anyone with a better memory than me\u2014and it was very close so even without binoculars I could see its bill, face, and body colouring.<\/p>\n
This busy home inspector was a House Wren. Usually they migrate south for the winter.<\/p>\n I have also seen Carolina Wrens here at Riverwood all year round.<\/p>\n Winter Wrens also flit through on migration. I have never taken a good photo of one here (well, anywhere! Yet.) but I have seen them.<\/p>\n And according to Dan Salisbury, co-leader of one of the spring bird walks, sometimes Sedge Wrens pass through. I have never knowingly seen one but I will certainly keep trying!<\/p>\n I have been watching for the House Wrens to return at Riverwood. The park staff put up nesting boxes in various locations and one of the ones along the board walk was used in the summer of 2014.<\/p>\n In fact, I was sure I was looking at a House Wren not far from one of the nest boxes the same morning I met the one whose photos grace this report. When I got home and zoomed in the photos, I discovered it was actually a Northern Waterthrush.<\/p>\n Oops! If you ever meet me walking, don\u2019t trust my field bird id skills!<\/p>\n The real House Wren I met was investigating an old woodpecker hole. It\u2019s quite possible it was considering whether it would make a good nest hole. Judging by how large the entrance hole is compared to the bird, however, I\u2019m not sure it will want to use this site. (You can be sure I\u2019ll be checking for signs of occupancy over the next weeks though.)<\/p>\n A few days later while down closer to the Lake, I chanced to meet another House Wren. This one was into home renovations, though. It was carrying nesting materials into a hole in a dead tree top.<\/p>\n What was very amusing, to me not the Wren, was when it brought something stiff that was longer than the diameter of the hole. It tried pushing it in (across the hole) twice before the material unexpectedly fell from its beak. It watched it fall to the ground with an annoyed expression.<\/p>\n The next piece it brought was also too large, but it was soft and bent when pushed hard against the trunk on either side of the hole so it popped in.<\/p>\n Today, when I was visiting that park again, I checked progress. There were two wrens at the building site!<\/p>\n One was calling and fluttering its wings in a frenzy of excitement, changing perches but never moving more than inches from the nest hole.<\/p>\n The other kept popping in and out of the hole but not engaging in any, er, activity with the other.<\/p>\n I wondered if perhaps the male builds the nest and tries to entice a female to join him in using it? When I got home I looked for more info online. Yes! It\u2019s true: AllAboutBirds says<\/strong><\/a> that males build nests hoping to persuade a female to mate with him.<\/p>\n The female I saw today didn\u2019t seem convinced that the site was good enough but maybe she\u2019ll agree if the nearby schools are good and the property taxes aren\u2019t too high.<\/p>\n So now I have two possible homes for House Wrens to keep an eye on as the spring progresses. More if I count the next boxes at Riverwood. Hopefully I\u2019ll see signs of hungry chicks inside later this year.<\/p>\n Related Reading<\/strong><\/p>\n Join In<\/strong> At this time of year, you can watch home renovations undertaken badly without ever switching on your TV. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-3366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focus","tag-birds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3366"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8390,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3366\/revisions\/8390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nCarolina Wren<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nWinter Wren<\/em><\/p>\nHouse Wrens Love Nest Boxes<\/h2>\n
<\/a>
\nThis is NOT a Wren!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nAnother Wren Setting Up House<\/h2>\n
<\/a>
\nWhy won’t this go in?!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nThis wren, presumably the male, was fluttering and calling near the nest hole.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nThe presumed female is near the nest hole and the male is on the branch nearby.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nThis is the Riverwood House Wren again.<\/em><\/p>\n\n
\nDo you have a pair of House Wrens nesting near you? Apparently they will nest in mailboxes and other odd places like coffee cans in garages. Please share your Wren home renovation stories with a comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"