Rock Wrens (?) at Rocky Mtn. Arsenal

[J V Rudd]

Hi all,

Had a great day at RMA with a Lesser Yellowlegs & a Sage Thrasher being added to my 2020 list. https://ebird.org/checklist/S74362841

However, there was a 3rd bird which stumped me. I initially thought it was a Rock Wren given the long bill (too long for a Vireo), drab cream-colored breast (no stripes like a Sage Thrasher), size (slightly larger than the other Rock Wrens we saw), and eye stripe (very bold). However, it wasn't anywhere near a rock.

We saw it twice, once on top of an outhouse building, and then on some logs. It was foraging for insects and not making a sound. One interesting behavior I had not seen before in Rock Wrens: it was bobbing up and down. Not rocking, not tail flicking, it looked like it was doing deep knee bends! I have never seen this.

Later on we saw two other Rock Wrens (on rocks this time) and the eye stripe was less distinct and there was no bobbing. they also looked smaller than the bird we saw.

One last identifying feature: the bird had black and white bands on the underside of its tail.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Good birding,

Van Rudd

Louisville, CO

[Peter Ruprecht]

Hi Van,

Your mystery bird actually sounds just exactly like a Rock Wren to me.  The bobbing behavior is very distinctive for them.

And they're on the move now; I had two in my backyard yesterday and one this morning.  (It's pretty common to have them here during migration; they seem to like our brick patio.)

Peter Ruprecht

Superior

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[Charlie Chase]

Not sure about the black and white bands you describe but everything else sounds pretty typical for Rock Wrens in general and the Rock Wrens I have been seeing at the Arsenal and Barr Lake recently.  We banded one a few days ago at Barr Lake that was working its way through downed cottonwood brush on the lake bottom, far far from a rock.  Last week I had a Rock Wren working the road edge near Lake Ladore and another prowling cottonwood bark on a trunk at the Arsenal.  They are moving through the area and showing up in lots of interesting places.  And yesterday, one was in my neighborhood in Denver digging bugs out of concrete cracks in the sidewalk.     Great fun out in Nature!!

Charlie Chase

Denver

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[tedfl...@gmail.com]

Thanks to Van Rudd for this note. 

The rock wren show yesterday, Sat., Oct. 3, at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, Adams County, was brilliant. Easily the most impressive rock wren migration I've ever witnessed. My companions and I saw at least 8--some of them on rocks, others elsewhere: in fields of mullein, even under a parked pickup truck.

It was a lovely day to be out. We found more than 60 species of birds, highlighted by a Woodhouse scrub-jay, two early hooded mergansers, 48 high-flying sandhill cranes, a snowy egret hanging on, a sage thrasher and a couple of mountain bluebirds, a hermit thrush and another Catharus, flyover pine siskins, and all those marvelous rock wrens. Dark-eyed juncos and white-crowned sparrows were back in force, and the sparrow show was, on the whole, quite decent; most intriguing was a briefly glimpsed candidate LeConte's sparrow near the refuge entrance off Gateway Road. Here's our eBird checklist:

https://ebird.org/checklist/S74378880

Great insects out there, highlighted by a queen, a brilliant orange butterfly from the South. Festive tiger beetles were legion, and we saw several purple tiger beetles--some of which are dazzlingly green. Go figure.

Ted Floyd

Lafayette, Boulder County

[Patrick O'Driscoll]

There have been reliable clusters of Rock Wrens @ the Arsenal in recent weeks, including in the boulder-filled drainage ditch by the little loop drive around the staff parking behind the north side of the visitor center (west of the ferret building and north of the fenced garden)  . . . . 

Also, all along the length of the boulder-covered slope or dam that defines the west/northwest shoreline of Lake Ladora.

Walk the path along that stretch and they almost seem to follow or fly ahead of you among the rocks.

(Lots of sparrows there, too, including White-crowned, Vesper, Savannah, Lincoln's. . . .)

I've seen at least 4-5  ROWRs in both those places my last three times out there in late September-early October.

Individuals pop up elsewhere, too, including north of the headquarters building (the newer building just up the road north of and beyond the visitor center), between the north edge of its parking lot and the fence to the bison meadows beyond.

Most unexpected sighting was one perched on a sign on the southwest corner of the intersection of 64th Avenue (the main east--west road when first entering the Arsenal) and Havana Street (the road that runs north to Lakes Mary/Ladora and Rattlesnake Hill).

Patrick O'Driscoll

Denver

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