Kelly and others,

I don't recall ever hearing an adult house wren make this sort of noise,
but the lack of an eye-ring would seem to discount the possibility of
Bewick's. I have noticed at Discovery park that some of the Winter Wrens
have REALLY short tails, and a few of them have tails which are
considerably longer. Are there possibly two different subspecies of
winter wrens around here? Don't know what to say about the bird which
was making the noise. Young House wrens make a similar noise in the two
or three weeks after fledging, but not beyond this period.

About looking toward peoples windows with binocs, it is really
fustrating. If you just decide to wait for the bird to move, and anyone
looks out the window, they can get really suspicous.

One time, I was sitting on the neighbors porch (this was just after we
moved in and hadn't met them yet) and I was looking at a Bewick's wren in
her Rhododendron. She opened the door behind me and asked "excuse me,
but what are you doing?" OOPS! I guess I should have asked first. Thats
the #1 mistake. Anyway I had to show her my field guide for her to
believe my story that I was looking at a bird I had never seen before,
and she still thinks that I am REALLY strange.


Michael Dossett
Shoreline, Washington
mpdossett at Juno.com

On Mon, 26 Jan 1998 15:56:40 -0800 (PST) Kelly Cassidy
<kelly at oak.cqs.washington.edu> writes:
>Do House Wrens make a "Chuck! Chuck!" call when upset? There is a
>wren
>in my neighbor's yard, in Seattle, that does the chuck! chuck!
>(usually
>double-noted) noise when I go in the back yard. I can't get a good
>look
>at it. (How does one politely look towards the neighbor's windows with
>a
>pair of binoculars?) From what I can see, it has a tan or light brown
>
>breast, no conspicuous eye stripe, and a tail too long (?) for a
>Winter
>Wren. However, I've heard Winter Wrens give a similar two-noted call,
>
>but have only heard a House Wren give the rattley call when alarmed.
>
>Kelly Cassidy -- Washington Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research
>Unit
>Box 357980, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 98195
>kelly at u.washington.edu --- 206-685-4195 --- 206-368-8076
>
>

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