[va-richmond-general] Bewick's Wrens at Henricus

    For those who have not already heard, two Bewick's Wrens were spotted at 
Henricus Park this morning by Irene Ries, Art Baker, and myself. This is what 
happened:
    We were behind the swamp in an area known as the "moon craters" because of 
the number of impressions in the ground (filled with water) that resemble 
craters (I have since been told that the area was a bombing range during WWII). 
The habitat is tall grass with some dead tress and some live trees. We were 
about 3/4 of the way down the trial, before it dead ends. A wren popped up with 
a white throat. We discussed how it seemed to fit the description of a Bewick's 
Wren and a decision was made to try and get the bird to pop up again (this was 
around 11am). After some pishing and skulking on our part, the bird reappeared. 
It was skulking under and around some fallen trees and some live trees (around 
the base). the closest we got to it was about 10 feet. As Art and I were 
watching it, Irene saw another one in the open. She noticed the bill looked 
different than a Carolina's and there were markings on the cheek (A Carolina 
has plain white cheeks). She also noticed gray flanks and no buff-coloring of 
any kind on the underside of the bird. The bird disappeared again and as we 
were consulting field guides (three different ones - Kaufman, Sibley, and the 
ABC), it reappeared on the same fallen log. This time, the bird turned, bent 
over, and "mooned" us :-) - it flipped up its tail and showed its bottom. There 
was no buff/rufous coloring anywhere on the tail or on the bottom - only black 
and white. The back and white was also noticed on the edges of the tail and the 
bird was marked differently on the side than a Carolina is. The eye stripe was 
very prominent. Some twittering sounds were heard that didn't resemble those of 
a Carolina Wren, though to my knowledge, none of us actually witnessed either 
of the birds singing. I listened to tapes afterwards. I did hear some sounds 
that were similar to some of the sounds on the Stokes recordings of a Bewick's 
Wren. I also listened to recordings of other wrens. Most of the sounds I 
remembered were not like those of any other wren, except for some call sounds 
that sound like the recordings of both a Bewick's Wren and a Carolina Wren.
    A detailed report/documentation has been filled out and will be mailed to 
the Regional Editor for the CBC by the end of the week. Unfortunately, none of 
us has a camera, but we studied the birds for about 1/2 an hour, consulting 
each other and the field guides while looking for and at the birds (they seem 
to respond well to pishing). Anyone wishing more information, please contact me 
OFF THE LISTSERV. Unless I don't have to work tomorrow/Monday, I will be unable 
to go out and try to find the birds again until January, as I'm going away for 
Winter Break. I can give a pretty good description of the area, however. If 
anyone goes out looking for the birds, please e-mail me if you see one or both.
Michael Shapiro
Short Pump
sc.tanager@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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