Hi tweeters.

Thanks to all who responded to my plea for assistance in identifying the
wren that I wrote about last week.

After reading all of your replies, I now think that I likely saw a Winter
Wren, but I'm still not certain, due to the length of the tail. I suppose
that if there are Winter Wrens out there that have more than the stubby tail
as depicted in the field guides that I have, then it certainly could have
been a Winter Wren. There have been so many reports of Winter Wren lately,
I'm sure to come across one that I can identify for sure.

About the eye-stripe on the bird that I saw last week; it wasn't white like
a Bewick's, or outlined like a Marsh's, but it was still distinct. I would
call it a light to medium brown. Is that what "buffy" is? The dictionary
that I have calls buff, "a light yellow", but my bird's stripe was more tan
than yellow. I find the colour business very complicated. One step ahead of
my Dad though, who thinks EVERYTHING is brown due to his colour blindness.

I did go back to the exact spot that I saw the bird, at the same time of
day, in similar conditions, in the hope of seeing it, or one of it's pals,
but no luck.

On my way there however, I believe I saw a Pacific Loon. Someone wrote a
lovely account of a Pacific Loon over the weekend and I didn't get nearly so
many of the subtle details, but I did notice the way the neck showed a very
distinct straight line between the dark and the light. I have only ever been
positive of Common Loon in the past or else loon (?). This bird caught my
eye right away as being slightly different. Is this distinct division
between the dark on the back of the neck and white on the front a reliable
field mark for a Pacific Loon? I also thought that the dark on the back of
the neck was darker than on the other loons that I've seen, but I suppose
that that could just be the individual bird, not necessarily the difference
between a Common or a Pacific. The whole head and neck seemed slightly
slimmer than the loons that I usually see, but that could have been an
illusion due to the smooth darkness of the bird. I hope that makes sense.