[obol] Sedge Wren in Polk County

[Robinson, Douglas]

I saw a Sedge Wren in southeastern Polk County at 4 pm today, 4 January 2007.

The bird was at the North Luckiamute Cooperative Wildlife Management area, otherwise known as Luckiamute Landing.  It is in southeast Polk County off of Buena Vista Road.  In the DeLorme Atlas, look at page 53, section C8.  To get there, take Buena Vista Road 1.8 miles north of its intersection with Spring Hill Road to a parking area on the east side of Buena Vista Road.  Walk east on the grassy road about 250 meters until the grassy road dead ends at flood waters.  You will need rubber boots to get through two water crossings on the way there. Once at the flood waters, it might be good to have chest waders.  When I first saw the bird it was near the grassy road at the edge of flood waters. It then flew north to a small grassy island. The water around that small grassy island was higher than my hipwaders. I could not get to the island without getting wet.  And, the island is actually on private land immediately adjacent to the public area, so it may be wise to seek permission first if you wish to wade north of the grassy road.

I first heard the wren call (a dry teck) from the border of a flooded weedy field.  I saw the bird perched in low grassy vegetation at the edge of shallow water for about 10 seconds. I could see the upper half of the body, but not the belly, vent, legs, or underside of the tail.  The bird was a very small wren about size of Winter Wren but appearing perhaps slightly larger (maybe because of tail being a little longer than in Winter Wren).  Very buffy looking with plain faced appearance relative to other wrens. Dark eye stood out strongly on the buffy face.  Faintly demarcated pale buffy supercilium, not obvious like Marsh Wren, and not contrasting much in color with the auriculars or other parts of the face.  Eyeline was narrow and not well-defined, but present. Faint dark streaking on buffy crown.  Slender, pointed, slightly decurved bill like other wrens, but short like Winter Wren, not as long as Marsh Wren.  Upper ridge to maxilla appeared dark and mandible appeared horn colored. Tail was held in cocked position and was noticeably shorter than a Marsh Wren’s tail; its tip was square in shape.  Wing feathers were buffy with narrow dark barring, as was tail, except tail appeared darker than wings at angle I was looking at bird.  Upper breast was plain pale buffy.  In flight, which was weak but direct and was done at about 1 foot above water surface, the bird had short rounded wings which appeared pale buffy-brown, had a somewhat darker back with narrow whitish streaks (not as obviously striped as on Marsh Wren), a rather bright buffy-orange rump that contrasted with the brown tail.  The bird dove into cover after it flew about 10 m or so.  

Similar species that can be discounted:  Marsh Wren is darker brown overall, larger, has obvious whitish supercilium, stronger eyeline, brown crown, longer bill, longer tail, rump is rufous-brown not buffy-orange.  LeConte’s Sparrow (I wish!) has conical bill not slender decurved bill, is bigger, has striped crown, orangish face with auricular markings, streaked underparts, and has longer, rounded tail not held in cocked position when perched.  Winter Wren is much darker brown overall including underparts, with a stronger supercilium, shorter darker brown tail and different call note.  House Wren is bigger with different call note, lacks streaked crown and lacks buffy-orange rump.  

Viewing conditions:  I saw the bird at 4 p.m. when it was perched at about 10 m from me. It was about 1 foot above the ground or water and I was looking slightly downhill at it.  The sun was low and behind me, but light was not directly on bird. Skies were partly cloudy.  I viewed the bird with 8 x 42 binoculars.

Dr. W. Douglas Robinson
Dept. Fisheries and Wildlife
104 Nash Hall
Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR 97331
http://fw.oregonstate.edu/robinson


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.oregonstate.edu/mailman/private/obol/attachments/20070104/abc4f7b9/attachment.htm