Headed over early this morning to check the Sedge Wrens on Glebe School
Road in Augusta County. Overcast and light rain by 8 a.m. at Rockfish
Gap. West in the valley, steady NNW wind and only few specs of rain drops
throughout the morning. Arrived at the wren site and at least 3 wrens were
singing. One was very close to the road between fence with corner red gate
and first utility poll. I never could locate that little guy. Back toward
the corner red gate I very briefly saw one wren "flutter" a few short feet
through the grass. I'm not familiar with their food foraging behavior but
in my observation today, it would seem the Sedge Wren forages close to the
nest site, staying pretty much low to the ground. By 10 a.m. the singing
wrens had quieted down for the most part with only an occasional "chrrp" or
short phrase of their song.
I repositioned the van alongside the fence line under a large tree and it
was here that I distinctly heard what sounded like young birds begging and
then the sound of birds being fed. The site was very near the fence line a
few short feet from the road! For a period of 25 minutes I was entertained
by the sounds of begging, feeding, a few minutes of intermittent peeps,
more begging, feeding, intermittent peeps, etc. I never observed anything
flying in or out. I attempted to record using my cell phone's voice
message feature but I only managed to capture the sound of the wind!
Shortly after I left heading to Livick Road (Rt. 705) I ran into Allen
Larner about two miles up who was heading down to the wren site. I alerted
him to the possibility of young Sedge Wrens!
Hopefully we'll be able to confirm successful nesting by either
photographing the fledglings or locating the nests at a later date, well
after birds would have fledged and left the immediate area. Considering
how difficult it is to find these birds in tall grass, I think we'd have a
better chance locating a needle in a haystack!
Brenda
Brenda Tekin
Charlottesville, VA
"Leave behind what you find. If you must take something, take pictures."
Photo journal including Birds of Virginia:
http://www.birdsofvirginia.com
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