FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Re: wrens

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Charlies Moore,

I have heard the name "Jenny Wren" as long as I've studied birds. Your
co-worker is correct that it is the House Wren and not the Carolina Wren.

I suspect local folks call any conspicious wren a Jenny Wren.

The name Jenny Wren has been used in North America for centuries.

The common name Jenny Wren was given to her by the early English colonists,
because they were reminded of the much milder mannered bird of the old
country.  The British bird was known simply as "Wren."

The House Wren has the distinction of having established a feminine common
name for an entire species.  We speak of "she" just as we do ships. Some
folks apparently have called the male of the House Wren a "Johnny" because
that appears in the old literature.

The reason I believe that local folks apply the name Jenny Wren to any
conspicious wren, is because the House Wren did not occur in our region as a
breeder until the early part of the 20th century.

Rick Knight, in his "Birds of Northeast Tennessee" in 1994, notes that the
House Wren expanded south into the region during the 1940s and 1950s.  The
expansion was well documented in THE MIGRANT by observers from bird clubs in
the Tri-Cities.  Bruce Tyler and Bob Lyle, both of Johnson City, found a
nest there in 1913.  That is the state's first nesting record.  We can only
assume that the House Wren did not occupy a breeding ranger here at other
times in history but we obviously don't know that.

The Bewick's Wren was common throughout the region when I first began
studying birds.  My early fieldnotes have many records of the Bewick's here
during the breeding season.  It song was often heard among the chorus of
birds about farms and out buidlings. The Carolina Wren was always common.
All of these specie nests close to man and are famous for the many unusualy
places they built their nest.

I came into bird study just as the House Wren was becoming well established
here and the first bird box I ever had hosted a successful nest of House
Wrens.  But I was also coming into the birding community in this region as
the Bewick's Wren was disappearing.  Knight wrote (1994) that the last area
record was 30 Oct 1975.  John Shumate and Milo Richmond had a bird on the
Appalachian Trail along the crest of Holston Mountain in Shady Valley during
the TOS Foray, 30 May 1976.  The last known nest of the species in the
region was June 1989 in the highwall of of a strip mine near Noora in
Dickenson County found by Virginia bird atlasers Sue Rid and others (Dick
Peak, Birds of the Virginia Cumberlands, 2001).

It seems logical to me that the earlier settlers of this region would have
called any conspicious wren a Jenny Wren and may still do.

Let's go birding.....

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, Tn








----- Original Message ----- 
From: "cfm46" <cfm46@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2005 8:58 AM
Subject: [Bristol-Birds] wrens


> Has anybody ever heard of "jenny wren" or "jinny wren"? My
> co-worker describes it to be house wren but I'm curious to
> know where the local name comes from?
>
> Thanks,
> Charles Moore
> (p.s.) I was walking at Winged Deer Sunday morning same as
> Larry McDaniel and missed the turkey! Bummer.
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Bristol Birds Net Photo Gallery located at:
http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jwcoffeyy/album?.dir=/efd5

This is a regional birding list sponsored by the
Bristol Bird Club to facilitate communications 
between birders and bird clubs of Southwest Virginia
and Northeast Tennessee.  
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To post to this mailing list, simply send an email
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       Wallace Coffey, Moderator
         wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
           (423)764-****