The northern most coastal population of wrentits in the world is in Clatsop
Co. OR at Ft Stevens State Park. I have banded them within 200m of the
Columbia R. where they are stopped by a 4 mile flight across to Washington,
a trip Wrentits are unlikely to make without human assistance. I have done
many censuses in Pacific County and have never found Wrentit.

HOWEVER....

Wrentits have been working their way up the Willamette Valley aided (we think)
in part by the creation of dense brushy habitat associated with clearcutting.
They are now regularly seen in and around metropolitan Portland and if the
Wrentit makes the jump to Washington, it is predicted to occur at Vancouver
or somewhere to the east (to Stevenson perhaps).

Range expansion is a fun thing to watch. Scrub-jays have been following
a similar pattern and are now in Olympia. Red-shouldered Hawks, White-tailed
Kites, Mockingbirds are all birds to watch. But my favorite, because it is
moving so unassumingly, is definitely the Wrentit. When it gets across the
Columbia, the next stop ia Alaska...


>
>Dear tweeters-
>
>I got curious as to the disagreement as to whether the wrentit has really
>be seen and if so, very often in Washington. Any data? via e-mail,
>please.
>
>Thankyou!
>
>Carolyn sambucus at a.crl.com
>
>

--
*********************************** I was of three minds
* Mike Patterson, Astoria, OR * like a tree
* mpatters at orednet.org * in which there are three blackbirds.
*http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters* -Wallace Stevens