Yesterday, August 12, while mowing around the South field and stopping periodically to pull tansy, I heard a Wrentit talking by the Ash Swamp. This is the first time in a long time that I have heard one here. But I could not see it, of course. Later that afternoon, I walked around the SW field by the Qi Gong grove near Agency Creek, and heard it again. This time in the hedge row between our property and the neighbor's. Tried talking to it and it talked back but could not see it.
So I emailed Paul Sullivan and asked if he could come out the next day and try to call it out for me. Paul sounds more like a Wrentit than a Wrentit does. Paul came the next afternoon, August 13, after I got home from my beached bird survey for COASST at Bob Straub Park. We hiked over to where I had heard the bird the day before. No Wrentit answered his calls, but a Warbling Vireo popped up and I got my first ever photo of one. Friend Dawn had managed to get a photo here some years go but I never had. Hooray for Paul's ability to call out birds!
Paul and I then walked north through fields and woods to the arboretum path, Paul calling along the way. Suddenly, from the hedgerow at the north edge of our property, a Wrentit answered!! Oh happy day. It did pop out to where we could see it briefly but never long enough or clear enough for me to get a photo. At least I know it's still here. Maybe it will eventually follow the hedgerow up to the house where I might have a better chance of seeing it... and getting a photo! Hope springs eternal...
Update 12/22/2020: while I was cutting brush by the creek near the barn, a Wrentit popped out and scolded me! I went to the house and got my camera and put it in the EZ Go, positioned where I could see if the bird popped out again. Then I went back to cutting brush. The Wrentit did pop in and out of view, scolding the whole time. I sat in the EZ Go and took photo after photo. In one of them, I actually got a recognizable shot of the bird. Finally!
