Subject: [Tweeters] Late House Wrens
Date: Dec 2 08:42:25 2006
From: Dave Jackson - djackson at wavecable.com


Last New Year's Eve day (Dec. 31, 2005), on the CBC for Port Angeles, Mary Mira and I saw two House Wrens (she saw a third) in a bush in scrubby DNR land well upslope from houses. There is no "record," per se, of this sighting. We are both experienced birders, but relatively new to this area, and we didn't know it was an unusual sighting because of time of year, so we didn't make notes. We simply recorded species and count, then moved on.

Here's our evidence, compiled when our identification was challenged at the evening wrapup. Having good looks with binoculars at 50 feet or so, we independently identified them from chatter and appearance -- having quickly eliminated possible contenders: Bewick's Wren (no supercilium), Winter Wren (lighter color, wrong chatter), and Ruby-Crowned Kinglet (evident wren striping with no eye ring, no wing bar).

Dave Jackson
Sequim, WA
djackson at wavecable.com