COBirders, I went in search of the "Pacific" Wren southwest of McCall Lake between Lyons and Longmont today at 1:30. Within seconds of peering over the side of the bridge, the bird popped out of the underbrush next to the river. It had a good look at the bird at about 30ft for over 3 minutes. This time the bird was on the south side of the bridge instead of the north like Ted had noted:
http://tinyurl.com/ylystby Lat: 40.195943N, Lon: 105.207704W While watching the bird, it called twice, both of which were single alarm notes. I have concern though that the calls I heard were not consistent with Western Winter Wren but more likely of the Eastern Winter Wren. The calls were chunkier than what I heard on Nathan's website for Pacific Wren. Do Pacific and Winter Wren calls overlap at all? Is it possible this bird is a hybrid? Are alarm calls sharper and chunkier than the calls noted on Nathan's website? I have all sorts of questions about this bird that currently confuse me. When viewing the wren, it looked really good for a Western Winter Wren, with little barring on its sides, the lightest color being on the throat, and really dark brown all over the bird with few spots of whitish/gray. The supercilium remained just as wide behind the eye as in front, but I am not sure if this is a characteristic of Western Winter Wren or not. It seems to be based on Sibley's drawings of the birds, but I make no conclusions based on one drawing. Overall, this bird was really easy to find and didn't really care that I was present. Most Winter Wrens (Eastern) that I have seen are super skulky where you can step on them and they don't even move, so this bird was a dramatically different experience for me. It was hanging around with Chickadees while I was there. Good luck if others go out chasing this bird. Bryan Guarente Instructional Designer The COMET Program University Corporation for Atmospheric Research Boulder, CO -- Colorado Field Ornithologists: http://www.cfo-link.org/ Colorado County Birding: http://www.coloradocountybirding.com/ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.as/group/cobirds?hl=en
