Saturday late morning I took a short walk at Davidsonville Park.  It was warm enough that most birds were pretty quiet.  However, at the edge of one pond we found what can only be a Winter Wren.  It’s a life bird for me, so I always prefer those confirmed by an experienced birder.  But with the dark body, the very short and very perky tail, I don’t know of anything else it could be.  At first I thought it might be a very scruffy, juvenile Carolina wren, but the beak was slightly wrong, the tail made no sense – if growing in, it was doing so very uniformly and the undertail feathers looked mature. And the color was too dark and too mottled for a Carolina.  After good long looks, and a visit with Mr. Kaufman and Mr. Sibley, as well as various on-line bird sites,  I’m quite convinced it was an adult Winter Wren.  Not sure why one would show up now (after I’ve diligently looked in winters without any luck)  but I think it’s pretty cool.  



Joanne Howl, DVM
West River, MD