Signs of Spring: wrens nesting

It's not hard to spot the nesting birds around Harringay at the moment, there's a marvellous magpie nest in one of the trees in my street, you can't miss its big dome shape which I spent several minutes watching two magpies constructing. I've also seen signs of sparrows in a hedge on my street.

Today as I was leaving Railway Fields, I noticed that a wren was hard at work building a nest in the corner of a covered balcony that overlooks Railway Fields. It was quite a distance from me so I've annotated the photos so that you can spot both the bird and the nest. 

It is the male wren that is the nest builder. He will construct up to a dozen nests and then try to persuade a female that he has mated with to take up residence. So a nest may not even get used if a female decides its not a des res. If, however, she likes it she will line it with moss, feathers and leaves and lay her eggs. I'm not sure (and willing to be corrected) but it looks to me like this wren has some lining material in her mouth and is getting ready to move in.

Although the male is polygamous and only the female incubates, he will help to feed the chicks. At this time of year, he is also fiercely territorial. His astonishingly loud song will signal his presence. Despite his tiny size, weighing about the same as a pound coin, he has a big voice. In fact, per unit weight, a wren sings at ten times the power of a crowing cockerel!