Glen Valley area December 28

[Gord]

Today I was doing some waterfowl research and did some surveys in the Glen Valley area which is sort of half in Aldergrove and half in Abbotsford. It was good to have Chris along for a ride too. This is a really nice area which both of us have never visited before. For sure a birdy area which I intend to visit again soon. Along 264th was a Short-eared Owl perched up quite high in a shrub. I dont think I've ever seen one do that as they seem to favour fence posts and even the ground.

The most interesting part of the day was along Dyke Road which is about 400 meters from Marsh McCormick Road.
Link to Google map goo.gl/maps/jgm4GDNMKi62

A Winter Wren was reported here recently so naturally we were very curious to check it out. Having Chris along, who has experience with them from the Peace was definitely very useful.

A quick background on the species, Winter Wren and our common Pacific Wren used to be considered a single species (Winter Wren) but were recently split into two species. Pacific Wren, not surprisingly, is found along the western part of North America from B.C. down to California. The Winter Wren is an eastern species but does occur up in the northeastern part of B.C. Telling the two species apart is not overly simple. Their songs are different and the call notes apparently the most easy way to tell the difference. Visually, Winter Wren tends to be paler than the Pacific Wren but there's a lot of caution placed on using visuals as there seems to be some overlap.

Back to the report. When we stopped at a boggy site on the north side of the road we right away heard something that caught our ear. I managed to get some video that has the bird calling and even singing a little bit. At the end there was a Pacific Wren calling which I also added to the video. Visually, despite the dangers of using that, it looks ok to me and Chris for a Pacific Wren. The calls we're not sure at this point. Are we not as objective as we could be considering we had the species on the mind given the recent reports and even that one was also reported from the Okanagan? This might not even be the same bird reported from earlier but I think these little guys likely do not move far once they get on their wintering grounds. One never knows. All in all this is a very good experience as it shows the value in knowing our day-to-day species not only because they're important to keep track of it does help in the overall learning experience. I'm not certain this bird would have caught my ear more than to maybe, at best, think this guy sounds a bit hoarse. If I had heard this species for sure in the past it would be a different story should I ever encounter it again.

Video link. Enjoy my efforts trying to chase this ping-pong ball-sized bird through the bushes. I did manage to get some decent video of the bird too about half way in.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_4oVmvjr9U

I also have a link below of two wrens that were recorded down in California. Here Pacific Wren is the most common of the two by far. I dont know what the mystery bird they were recording turned out to be in the end but I can hear a Pacific Wren in the background. Also the guy recording sure knows how to make his birding buddy keep his opinions to himself while he records! I added it as it gives a better comparison, more or less, to what we seemed to have today but was unable to capture as well.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=utTuJopf_VQ

Look forward to any feedback anyone has. Chris, thanks for coming out today.

[Chris]

Looks like this bird is a Winter Wren after all.

Nice bird for the Fraser Valley.

[Jamie]

Is it in our checklist area?

[birder1942]

Gord and Chris. Can we be that sure that this is a Winter Wren? Is it pale enough? Was the call clear enough? I would love for it to be true, and if so find it on the Abbotsford-Mission CBC, since it is in the area Ed and I and our team is doing. John Vooys

[ian]

Visited Glen Valley for the Wren today and was pleasantly surprised to see Dave Beeke drive up as I hadn't yet had the pleasure of face to face meeting.
We waited a bit and with Dave doing his best vocalizing, we were treated to a few good looks at the subject bird...

Winter Wren by Ian Kelshaw, on Flickr

[Gord]

John, it seems the trend is going towards Winter but those questions are in my mind as well. Despite the similarities to each other plumage wise, I was still also expecting a bit of a paler bird as well. Some more people are going tomorrow to take a look. I'm sure we'll get it sorted out before your count! I dont think it's going anywhere soon.

Here are some photos from yesterday. Very easy, in my opinion, to pass it by as a Pacific Wren if it were to remain silent. What we can be sure of is it's a cute little guy.

[Dave]

I enjoyed checking out Rick's Winter Wren and chatting with Ian and company this afternoon. What a great image to study, Ian! I see no reason why this bird is not a winter wren in sound and looks. Great lighting today for pics and Ian captured the bird well.

[Chris]

Haven't posted my thoughts. I have only seen/heard Winter Wren a few times in the Peace. When I heard a Pacific Wren at Moberly I instantly recognized the call and likewise when I heard Winter Wren singing in a few areas I recognized the call. When I first heard the bird yesterday I thought Winter Wren. However, there were a few times when it called it sounded more like a Pacific Wren. Not sure if Gord got that on video or not.

Jamie I thought our checklist was east of Bradner. When I tried to enter it on Ebird the location came up as Fraser Valley and not Metro Van.

[Chris]

I emailed Mark Phinney about this bird. Seeing as he lives in the Peace area he has encountered both species quite a bit. For those that don't know the Peace region you can encounter both species and I believe areas around Tumbler both species occur very close by.

Here are his thoughts

"I think the odds are overwhelmingly in favour of Pacific Wren - even if considereing only by range & season.

Additionally:

This bird looks darker/dingier than boreal forest wrens and the fact that it sang a little bit seems more appropriate for a coastal bird (either resident or short-distance migrant).

The song itself sounds 'tighter' and higher pitched than a Winter Wren, based on my experience (example from Hudson's Hope attached)

I don't know that much work has been done on the various wren call notes. I haven't been able to sort that out with consistency"

[Gord]

Huh. Unless tomorrow I get lucky my goal to get three lifers in a year will not happen. It's been awhile since I've got more than one or less per year I thought it cant hurt to get a little greedy just once and try for a bit more. The learning experience was great though.

Ian Cruikshank shared some thoughts including some recordings and video from Haida Gwaii of a Winter Wren (reviewed by the fellow who did a lot of work on splitting the species which is pretty good!). The recordings and comparing them to others sounds very much the same. As well he shared a bird from Victoria which seems very much like this bird in terms of the confusion it has caused. Sounds like it was called a Pacific Wren with off-key at the end as well. The recording is not quite like our bird but it's making a sound I've never heard a Pacific Wren make. I guess it's not impossible for a bird to make an odd sound. I've heard it before in other species such as chickadees and Song Sparrows. Very interesting. Thanks again Ian.

Yesterday I uploaded a clip of the bird's call notes to Xeno Canto to get a sonogram made. I compared it to birds from out east and they look similar but I'm not really sure how to read these things so have not bothered to upload them here. The file is at www.xeno-canto.org/297571 if anyone wants to take a peak.

Ian, perhaps I should put this in the photography section but what white balance wetting do you use? Manual or automatic?

[ian]

Gord, sorry I just noticed this note.
I generally use Auto white balance but I shoot RAW and adjust as required in Lightroom.
This Wren was shot RAW and the white balance was left as auto with subtle exposure adjustment and some sharpening.
I sent Mel some RAW files for the commitee to consider.

Ian

[Gord]

Ian, thanks. I shoot jpeg usually unless I'm doing something where I want post editing options. But I just don't have time to do much with RAW and hard to justify the large file size for each photo! My white balance (WB) is on manual usually which I think is not a good idea as I need to adjust it depending on the light etc. In essence another adjustment to make along with shutter speed, aperture and ISO. I am going to experiment with automatic WB.

But WB really does not matter in most situations as it makes a small difference. A warmer photo looks nice too. But in situations like these it's very noticeable! While your photo's tone is different and much sharper/better quality your bird is the same as the one I photographed and videoed. The call notes are the same and while my pictures understandably bring an element of confusion pausing the video I got we can see the same little white feathers on the right wing. Dave showed me his pictures he took with you and he has a very similar looking photograph to yours. Interestingly to me the bird in the field was slightly warmer than how your and Dave's photos portray it.

Dave Peppar, who had noticed my camera's tendency recently 'fixed' a photo of mine and I felt it did a good job of making the image more accurate. I tried to do what he did with this wren.

Unedited



Edited to remove the unnatural warm tones



I was highly amused to see a cheap little video camera did a better job of capturing the bird's colours and the finer details.




While a bit of a drag not getting a life bird at the end of all this I got two consolation prizes which include a fun identification challenge AND a chance to talk photography.

[Gord]

Now that it seems we have the bird's identity more or less sorted out, I'd like to respond to the second question this sighting brought up which is checklist areas.

Many moons ago when I started up what we see here today, I chose a checklist area to focus our efforts on. I started by using the Fraser Valley Regional District boundaries as this is a consistent and verifiable line on a map.

I erred a little. I thought that I knew that the FVRD boundary to the west was Bradner Road and never examined it more closely. Seems I was wrong as the boundary, which also follows the City of Abbotsford's boundary, actually lies just west of Lefeuvre Road. This puts the FVRD boundary just under 2.5 km west of Bradner Road.

I also believed that the Metro Vancouver checklist area went east to Bradner Road and included all of Golden Ears Provincial Park. While I know part of the FVRD extends into Golden Ears I drew the line around the park both because it was in another checklist area and because much of that area is pretty remote and not going to get a great deal of birding activity. Plus, and this may be why Metro chose the entire park, it's tough to say where in the park you would step from Metro to FVRD. That said, it's not necessarily easy to see on the ground when you're in or out of a huge and remote park like Golden Ears either but the former does make some sense. When the lines were drawn for our checklist area originally we 'took' all of Manning Park for the same reason because the boundary lines in this area are rather difficult to sort out even though they follow the height of land (Allison's Pass for example) before it 'dips' down into the Okanagan area.

But since the creation of this site, we've had an amazing resource come on line by way of eBird. I'm sure all would agree it has rose to the forefront of collecting our birding data and is something we all refer to. It also provides a standardized model to follow. eBird, in B.C. anyway, uses the Regional Districts as boundaries for checklist areas. Chris and Jamie were the first to point out that eBird insists we are in the Fraser Valley where this wren was spotted. Now, we have a resource that we can simply click on that will tell us where the heck we are (assuming we know where we are on the ground). Makes me feel old how things change and improve.

Also, Metro Vancouver's checklist does not go to Bradner Road. Rather, it goes to 260th Street which is even further west of the Lefeuvre Road boundary . Out of curiosity, I've asked Wayne Weber what the checklist committee used to chose this line. I've attached their checklist as it's a good resource to look at to see arrival and departure dates and so forth for birds in that area as well as their boundaries.

Birds of Greater Vancouver Checklist.pdf (502.41 KB)

With all this info and considering possible rash decisions 10 years ago I am proposing that we mirror eBird's boundaries to enable more consistent and comparable data and to shrink the 'gap' between Metro's and our checklists. Also, eBird should all but eliminate the question of where are we in relation to boundaries because they've already done the work for us. This would remove part of Manning Park but adds part of Golden Ears which to date I've not seen any birding reports or records as yet. I will converse with Wayne on this to hear his thoughts and to make sure the birding community's efforts remain collaborative and pulling in the same direction though.

Any ideas and feedback are welcome.

[murraybrown]

Gord, your suggestion to conform to the eBird boundaries makes perfect sense. As you say, the eBird folks have done all the grunt work to establish them and anything we can do to simplify our reporting system just seems logical.
Not conforming will only add to the confusion we sometimes face in establishing a bird's location.
The only other method would require all reports to be accompanied by GPS coordinates for accurate reporting and we know that would discourage rather than encourage people to report their bird sightings.

[Gord]

Thanks for pointing that out. I don't see where it says 2016 however? That may be referring to an older boundary as I recall old checklists did say Bradner Road. I'll see what Wayne says about that. There are a few boundaries floating around! It will be nice to sort them out.

I imagine at our end that we'll go ahead and mirror eBird at least for our efforts out here. That seems to be a logical choice and I'm sure Wayne and the checklist committee will consider this option as well especially given their strong support of eBird.

Murray, the end user is important and you make a good point in achieving the goal of simple as possible data collection.