excitement during non-migration season

["Donna S. Bailey" <dsbailey@conterra.com>]

For those of you who think non-migration seasons are boring for birding, I
offer this webpage.  Sharon Brown, who lives down close to the ACE Basin,
has been documenting the Carolina Wrens who are nesting beside her steps and
has posted these photos.

http://slbrown3.home.mindspring.com/cawrs.htm

Having recently watched a nest of Carolina Wrens fledge from under my own
porch (where the wrens build on the top of the piers that support the porch)
I would like to propose a new subspecies of Carolina Wren, Thyrothorus
ludovicianus porchinus, Carolina Porch Wren.  While there are no visible
physical traits that separate Porch Wrens from the nominate subspecies,
behaviorally, they are a whole different species.  They will argue with the
cat and scold the humans, quite unlike the shier (but equally as noisy)
nominate subspecies.  The Porch Wren subspecies would include those Carolina
Wrens who have been found nesting in used and unused flower pots, seasonally
unused boots left in an outside shed, in bags of clothespins on
clotheslines, in garages and outbuildings, etc.  DNA testing should reveal
the presence of a much more active "bravado" or "chutzpah" gene, in contrast
to the "invisible but vociferous" gene present in the nominate subspecies.

Enjoy the page!  

 
Donna Bailey
Winnsboro, SC
e-mail: dsbailey@conterra.com
URL: http://www.conterra.com/dsbailey
     "Where are the Birds?  Migration across South Carolina"