Well...all of the wren houses are up now. Thanks to a few people. Above from left to right is Raffica LaRosa (Gobles GK12 Fellow), Brook Wilke (Martin GK12 previous Fellow), and Emily Grman (Lawton GK12 Fellow). Below is Melissa Kjelvik (Comstock GK12 Fellow).
It was a beautiful weekend. At Lux Arbor, I monitor 68 different house wren territories. We put 3 nest boxes (wren houses) at each territory. That's 204 nest boxes total!
Raffica is working hard attaching a nest box to one of the poles. We have to get these boxes up by next weekend. The male house wrens arrive first in mid-April. The females arrive later in late-April. They start pairing up right away and begin to lay eggs early May.The house wrens finish their migration here in Michigan but it begins down south. The house wrens winter near the Gulf of Mexico. It takes them a couple months to make the entire journey north.
Hi Jean,
ReplyDeleteI have a house wren question for you - maybe other people will have the same question. How do house wrens decide who they will pair with, and how long do they stay paired up?
Robin
Thanks for asking a question Robin. Let's answer the easy question first. They stayed paired per brood. So they will have one mate with the first brood and can choose to leave or stay for the second brood.
ReplyDeletePairings depend on many factors. The most important being competition for mates. The higher competition, the choosier the sexes can be. And that also depends on the ratio of male to female. They can choose partners depending on quality of the individual. I'll have more details later on in the season.