Outdoors: Bird watch
BY DAN REINKING
Sunday, October 07, 2012
10/07/12 at 6:43 AM
Their presence usually betrayed by their voice long before they are glimpsed, marsh wrens return to Oklahoma each fall and are uncommon winter residents.
They can learn hundreds of songs early in life, but sing much less during the winter months than during the breeding season. Found most often in dense cattail marshes, they forage for spiders and insects near the surface of the water or on plant stems.
Reddish-brown wings and white streaks on the back are characteristic.
This week in eastern Oklahoma
ARRIVALS
Canvasback, Western Grebe, Dunlin, Little Gull, Baonaparte's Gull, Short-eared Owl, Hermit Thrush, LeConte's Sparrow, Harris's Sparrow.
DEPARTURES
Neotropic Cormorant, Roseate Spoonbill, Mississippi Kite, Solitary Sandpiper, Common Poorwill, Least Flycatcher, Warbling Vireo, Philadelphia Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Tennessee Warbler, Ovenbird, Mourning Warbler, Wilson's Warbler, Summer Tanager, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Dickcissel.
Dan Reinking is a senior biologist at the Sutton Avian Research Center in Bartlesville. Contact him at dreinking@ou.edu or see tulsaworld.com/suttoncenter.
The Bird Watch list is excerpted from the Date Guide to the Occurrences of Birds in Oklahoma, which lists normal dates of occurrences for bird species by seven geographic regions of the state. It is a publication of the Oklahoma Bird Records Committee of the Oklahoma Ornithological Society. For full information about the guide and how to report unusual bird sightings at unusual times of year go to tulsaworld.com/okbirds.
Original Print Headline: Bird Watch
Associated Images:
A marsh wren perches among cattails. JAMES ARTERBURN/Courtesy
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