More Carolina Wren action

While on the east section of the Canon City Riverwalk this morning, I heard a Carolina Wren singing. Likely the same wren I heard 3 days ago, it sang a song pretty close to what I heard then. Interestingly, the songs I have heard on this far eastern end of the Riverwalk are different from the Carolina Wren songs I have heard on the west end of the Riverwalk with the closest wren singing near the Rec District parking area which is more than a mile away. The furthest wren on the west side would be close to 2 miles from where I heard this wren singing.

That said, I am not implying that this is a different wren from the 2-3 Carolina Wrens I have seen and heard on the west section of the Riverwalk. For one thing North American Birds online states, "Individual male song repertoires range from 17 to 55 song types, averaging 32 songs/male." It goes on to note that males "will sing a song type an average of 15 times before switching to another song type, usually after a pause in singing." To complicate the situation it further notes, "In territorial maintenance singing, males repeat the same song type in bouts of 5–250 songs before switching to another song type." So this just may be a song I haven't heard sung yet. And I guess I haven't heard any one Carolina Wren sing a sufficient number of times (however many times that may) to hear any one bird change it's song.

I was able to visually locate the Carolina Wren this morning but it was about 150 feet away and 20 feet above the ground in a cottonwood tree when it was singing. I took this photo from about 125 feet so I cannot enlarge it more as it was taken handheld with my 12X digital. The bottom pic shows what the photo of the bird looks like before I cropped it.

I watched this bird for several minutes. When it finished singing its' song, it continued perching on the same branch for a few minutes before launching into its' next song (same song type). It did turn around on the branch, maybe looking for a female or competitor?).
SeEtta

Carolina Wren & Yellow-rumped Warblers along Canon City Riverwalk

I walked the west section of the Canon City Riverwalk this morning, the first time since early fall. And it was a great day to do this--the temps came close to 70 again for the second time this week, and boy were the birds out and about. I ran into the other Canon City birder, Rich, and we birded together for awhile. I told him I had seen a Cooper's Hawk fly close overhead and he said he had also seen an accipiter, likely the same one given timing and location, also. He trumped the single Yellow-rumped Warbler I had seen with his count of 9.

We talked about the Carolina Wren that he had found on the Riverwalk last year in this area. Though he had not heard it for awhile, other birders had reported having seen or heard it in the past month or so. After we walked several hundred yards away from the location where he had heard this wren before, I heard the distinctive call that is often described phonetically as "tea kettle, tea kettle, tea kettle." It doesn't really sound like that, or other phonetic descriptions, to me but it is nonetheless distinctive. This shy wren would not come out to be seen and stopped singing when walked nearby on the trail (as opposed to the Carolina Wren that several of us saw and got to watch for several minutes at the Lamar Woods area during the Snow Goose Festival).

There were more nice birds there today but I will put them in my next posts or this would be too long.
SeEtta

More birds in Lamar area-Sunday

This morning several of us birded the Lamar Woods this morning. The Carolina Wren was refound by Barb while Pearl found a 1st winter Harris' Sparrow and a male Red-bellied Woodpecker (the bird yesterday was a female). Also found were at least 2 Downey Woodpeckers, 1 Hairy Woodpecker, and some Cedar Waxwings.

This afternoon I found 2 Golden Eagles, probably in Basic III plumage, about a mile apart just south of Eads (a small town north of Lamar). They are proof that even with a continuing snow cover in this area there are still birds to be seen and carrion to feed these raptors.

(I'm posting from my room at the Blue Spruce Motel in Lamar so not able to post any photos)
SeEtta

Snow Goose Festival birds

Though the weathercasts said that snow with strong winds would begin late Friday night continuing into Saturday morning, here was not snow on the ground and it was just spitting early Saturday am. So 12 brave birders joined the leaders of the 7-8 am Beginning Birder trip leaders at the "Lamar Woods", a major birding hotspot behind Lamar Community College. Pete Dunne also joined the field trip and he spotted or identified a singing Carolina Wren, a Red-bellied Woodpecker, a Sharp-shinned Hawk and a small flock of Cedar Waxwings flying over.

Then Pete Dunne led an afternoon Raptor Tour that was quite productive though limited to around or near Lamar as all highways around town were closed due to blowing snow/sand. Fortunately the winds died down to a more bearable level that made it more comfortable. At Fairmont Cemetery a Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk, a Great Horned Owl and several other Red-tailed Hawks were observed. As the bus drove to other areas Pete spotted a soaring Cooper's Hawk in addition to the many American Kestrals and several more Red-tailed Hawks that were seen. Other birds seen on this trip were several flocks of Sandhill Cranes and a number of white geese (mostly Snow Geese but at least 1 Ross' Goose). Additionally hundreds and hundreds of American Crows fed and flew around the agricultural fields.

SeEtta