[cobirds] Rock Wrens at The Arsenal--oh yeah!

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

On Sunday, October 4, 2020 at 6:57:38 AM UTC-6 van....@gmail.com wrote:

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

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