When is a late spring tiny wren not a Sedge wren? That only happens when it is a Marsh wren. The two species look very similar but work in a different habitat, although both habitats can be in close proximity. A Sedge wren has a thicker mandible and a speckled shoulder and a striped crown, while a Marsh wren has a dark shoulder and solid brown crown. They also have different calls but let’s not get too definitive. Both wrens are shy. They are most often hidden within grass, reeds, or a shrub. Their call is loud and makes the wren seem closer than it actually is. I watched a Marsh wren return to the same stunted shrub again and again. Not only the same shrub, but the same spot within that annoyingly dense shrub. It’s murder to focus on a small bird in a dense shrub, or is it ... a dense bird in a small shrub? Either way, it wrangles when the wren keeps returning to the same spot, never exposing itself like an uninhibited pervert. It somehow mysteriously seems to know that its behaviour drives me nuts. I even put on tele-converters onto my lens, thus losing sight of the lens hood because I’m shortsighted. I thought that I could manually focus onto that tiny wren’s head. It worked, but it’s not much of a shot. I removed my tele-converters to everyone’s relief because birders don’t like it when you make a spectacle of yourself. Fortunately, other Marsh wrens came to the rescue and popped out of the wet grass to take a look. They also kept on calling, repetitively, over and over again. I’m glad that I didn’t know what they were saying. Probably pointing out my tautology.
Marsh wren @ 600mm
Hidden Marsh wren @ 1200mm
Sympathetic wren revealing itself
I think that this is my best side
