I decided to send this as a separate message in light of the subject.
At about noon today, as Ann and I birded along the central levee at Hughes Hollow, about 30 feet beyond the junction with the levee that heads west, we were hearing and observing Song and Swamp Sparrows through bushes down at the edge of the water on the west side of the levee. The sparrows were difficult to see, giving us only brief glimpses. Suddenly we heard a fussy, chattery call deep in the bushes. Neither of us had ever heard anything like it from Song or Swamp Sparrows. The bird doing the call moved around. We never could get binoculars on it, but I had two brief, naked-eye views that appeared to be a small brown bird with its tail cocked up. Under the principle that when you hear hoofbeats assume you are hearing horses, we came home and listened to various recordings of Song and Swamp Sparrow and could not find any chattery calls like we had heard. My impression all along was that the voice seemed wren-like. So we also tried to find a chatter call for Winter Wren, also without success. Since the bird I had glimpsed seemed to have a longer tail than I would expect for Winter Wren, we decided to listen to House Wren calls. We found the following recording on the Cornell Mcauley Library of Sounds site of a House Wren call recorded in Maryland that sounds to us exactly like the bird we were hearing. http://macaulaylibrary.org/audio/94401/troglodytes-aedon-house-wren-united-states-maryland-wilbur-hershberger
I checked eBird for dates for House Wren at Hughes Hollow, and, not surprisingly, they all seem to begin in April. Looking farther afield, I found two eBird reports of House Wren this February, one of two birds at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in D.C. on February 15, and one of a single bird in Columbia (Howard County, MD) on the 16th.
So, because I did not have a chance to really see the bird, I am debating whether to add House Wren to my eBird list for today at Hughes, and I would appreciate any feedback.
Also, if anyone visits Hughes Hollow in the next few days, keep an eye out.
Thanks.
Jim Nelson]
Bethesda, MD
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