Monday, March 1, 2021

WINTER WREN

The month of February ended on a rather quiet birding note, which made for a welcome weekend of hiking behind waterfalls and playing in the mountains with the family. A group of Canada Jays visited the parking lot at the Salt Creek Sno-Park a few times, which was my 211th bird for the year and a nice addition to close out the month.

Just minutes before we took off for Salt Creek a message came over the Mid Valley WhatsApp group about a possible Winter Wren near Corvallis. I wouldn't have a chance to chase on Sunday, so I didn't think much of it at the time. After enjoying a few hours in the snow under cloudless skies, we arrived back in the land of cell service and a message from Nolan popped up on my phone.

Turned out the possible Winter Wren was getting more intriguing by the hour.

Courtney Kelly Jett and Caleb Centanni picked up on the bird while out on a hike and got the word out quickly. Doug Robinson was in the area and stopped by to investigate. He was able to get quality recordings and a few photos of the bird in question, and those recordings started to make things interesting. 

Winter Wrens looks remarkably similar to our familiar, abundant Pacific Wren. It's a little lighter on the throat and breast, has a slightly more pronounced supercilium, and is a cooler brown shade overall. But all of these features are subtle and can look rather variable from individual to individual, all the more so given lighting conditions. But, as is the case with several groups of species, vocalizations can be more diagnostic.

Just six weeks ago our neighbor to the north got its first record of Winter Wren. When the spectrograms of the Corvallis bird are placed alongside those of the Washington bird, they look identical. Watch the recordings of the previous checklist, and compare them with Doug's. And then note the difference between the Winter and the Pacific—there's a gap in the chip note for the former, but not the latter. Pretty cool stuff.

Convinced that this is likely a legitimate Winter Wren, this morning I decided to kick off the month by spending some time looking for this bird before work. I was shocked when I arrived to find no other birders in search of this first state record. A quick hike up a steep and muddy trail lead me straight to where the bird was hanging out the day before, and it was calling actively when I got there. I couldn't help but think that if I was on a hike and not paying terribly close attention, I could have easily passed over the bird, thinking it was a Song Sparrow.

I made a few recordings, then spent a while following it around and attempting to get photos. It was incredibly dodgy and deeply uninterested in having its picture taken, which made for some exasperating moments. Thankfully the surrounding bird life was entertaining in the meantime. A Hutton's Vireo and Canada Jay called nearby, while the calls of a Pileated Woodpecker and my first Northern Pygmy-Owl of the year rang out from an adjacent hillside. Sunlight poured through the trees. March was off to a quality start.

Mark Baldwin and Nolan joined the search after a little while, and in our effort to track the bird down I was finally able to get a couple poor photos.


OREGON'S FIRST WINTER WREN!

You can see and listen to my recordings here.

This was an excellent find by Courtney and Caleb, and an absolutely unexpected species for my Oregon year list. I can't help but wonder if there are others around, just waiting to be found by attentive wanderers.

On to the next!

 

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