Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 14:59:24 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Jim Stasz Subject: Finding Sedge Wrens MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks! The question of finding Sedge Wrens pops up regularly. Some may recall that I spent an entire year living at Irish Grove. Add to that numerous trips to the Eastern Shore and some patterns emerge. Habitat: Sedge Wrens prefer a marsh habitat that has a high foliage diversity [for a marsh]. Monotonous stands of cattail, phragmites, tall cordgrass [Spartina cordifolia], or spartina are not productive. An exception are small pure stands of needlerush. Areas with mixtures of Marsh Elder [Iva fructescens], needlerush [Juncus roemerianus], and salt hay [Spartina patens] are very good. I have a feeling that Sedge Wrens like habitats that in summer and fall are full of spiderwebs and that they may glean these areas during the winter. While such areas can be found as pateches in all of the coastal marshes, there is a distinct band of this habitat where the marsh meets the upland. In some areas this habitat occurs where the marsh meets open tidal water. At Irish Grove the platform on the Rail Trail is in the middle of the best habitat. Time of year: From the Atlas you will see that Sedge Wren is a rare nester in Maryland. The nesting season here tends to be late Summer. October through mid-April seems to be the time of peak abundance. An exception is a small Spring-early Summer breeding population in Cherry Creek Glades, Garrett County. Time of Day: Dawn and Dusk are clearly the best time to find Sedge Wrens. They vocalize a lot at these periods of the day. The call note is more often heard than a song. It has a "twangy" quality [imagine plucking a wide rubber band] quite different from Marsh Wren and similar to some call notes of Common Yellowthroat. Singing though less common occurs during the short breeding season [July-August] and again can be heard regularly in late March into May when most of the population leaves for their main breeding area in the upper Midwest. Particular Places to Look: #1: Irish Grove Sanctuary, Somerset County. Nowhere else can you have a place to stay and have a 5 minute walk for dawn chorus by a fantastic salt marsh. From the house, walk due south and onto Rail Trail. In 100 yards or so you will reach the platform. Sedge Wrens can be found in any direction withion 100 feet. #2: Assateague Island, Worcester County. Walk along the western edge of the island where the woodland/shrub meets the marsh. The western part of the Life of The Marsh Trail and the needlerush marsh at Ferry Point are also easy places to check. #3: Cornfield Harbor, St. Mary's County: south of Ridge and west of Pt. Lookout SP is Cornfield Harbor Road. Near the end of the road is a nice shrubby saltmarsh [good for Clapper Rail]. On the last Christmas Bird Count, 4 Sedge Wrens were calling at dusk. There is a lot of suitable habitat near Blackwater NWR, but I can not think of any particular spot. Try along Shorter's Wharf Road. The same is true for Somerset, with likely areas just south of Crisfield, in Fairmont WMA, and Deal I. WMA. For more information: http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/Infocenter/i7240id.html Good Birding! Jim Jim Stasz North Beach MD jlstasz@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================