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Sedge Wren & Henslow's Sparrow New Ellenton, SC



Hi Folks,  (please respond to capito@hotmail.com)

Good to be back from 5 weeks in Puerto Rico. The season, I see, has brought 
some changes in fauna. Juncos are outnumbering Chipping sparrows etc.

I'm not certain HOW good they are, but my better half (Tracey) and I had two 
pretty decent birds this afternoon at the Savannah River Site. The wind and 
cold almost reminded me of back home in Massachusetts. So did the snow 
flurry this morning. We headed out anyway and took a look along a power line 
cut that dips into some marsh.

The first bird jacked itself up onto a cattail, 10 feet away, just off the 
path. I didn't look at it through my binos, as I was reaching for my 
recording gear at the time.  I could see that it was a pale wren, Marsh or 
Sedge. The size said Sedge. I did muted markings. The other thing that said 
Sedge was the bird itself… "tdch - tdch… tdch". I have heard it often and 
know it from the breeding grounds. SEDGE WREN. I was quite secretive after 
getting a good look at us.

The second bird was even better. I DID look at this one with the bins and 
even recorded my description on tape. It had flown up from the roadside into 
a pine. I knew it was an Ammodram. just as I saw it. It had an extremely 
flat head and huge bill. The bill was pinkish with a dark culmen. The lores 
were buff and the side of the head was heavily marked. There was a pale eye 
ring followed by a dark post-ocular stripe. Below the p-o stripe was a dark 
auricular crescent and even below that was a dark sub-malar (heavy and set 
off from any other dark). The nape, crown and face were washed olive with 
the central crown stripe proving to be buff/olive. Dark flank streaks ran 
into a buff/cinnamon lower flank wash, and up to a necklace of smaller 
streaks. The throat was plain, washed buff as was the central chest. I did 
not see the wings while it was perched. This was the best example of an 
adult HENSLOW'S SPARROW I've seen and I was able to look at it perched in 
the tree for a good 5 minutes from 25 feet away. It only flew when we walked 
under it.

Off to the great white north (MA) on Wed. (Gyr? Smew? Hawk Owl?)

Cheers!
Paul Champlin
New Ellenton, SC

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