This morning at 7:30 an appropriately-name winter wren appeared around the
water buckets (heated) in our sheep barn, (Hopewell Township, western
Muskingum County.) It was 2 degrees F (above zero.) I have seen this
species here before, but not often in our 17 1/2 years of residence, and
never in the barns before.

So far, in 2018 the deep cold has provided large visitations of feeder
birds, mostly the sixteen expected species. The lowest temperature we have
seen here is 5 below F, yesterday morning. We feed black sunflower, nyger
thistle, and suet.

Woodpeckers: downy, hairy, red-bellied
Sparrows: song, white-throated, tree, juncos, house
House finch, goldfinch
Bluejays, cardinals, mourning doves
Carolina chickadee, tufted titmouse, white-breasted nuthatch

One fox sparrow and one towhee also put in appearances yesterday.
Crows are flying overhead.

---

Palm warbler (12/29/17):

Thanks to all of you who wrote to me and let me know that palm warbler
could possibly occur at my location on December 29. I heard from several
folks who offered anecdotes of palm warblers and other hardy warbler
species who have turned up this time of year.

I will admit, this was a first for me, (a December warbler other than a
yellow-rumped,) and once the temperature again plummeted and the farmyard
was blanketed thoroughly with 3-plus inches of snow that fell overnight
covering all possible grassy edges where I saw the bird, I have not seen it
return.

Details of the sighting:

Previously, the cold snap, temperatures as low as 3, had frozen the ground
like a rock, with only a light dusting of snow. The deep freeze brought
birds that I had previously seen in the fields and forest to the feeders.
We have plenty of goldenrod and other weeds that seem to sustain birds like
juncos, white-throated sparrow and tree sparrows until the ground freezes
hard. And this year is no exception. There was only a junco or two under
the feeders until temperatures fell dramatically over Christmas weekend.
Now there are plenty of these birds, and the snow cover makes it even more
so.

On December 29 it got up to 22 mid-afternoon, and there were exposed areas
of ground and grass around darker areas and objects, where the dusting of
snow had disappeared or never covered completely.

I had heard Carolina wrens bursting with song on December sunny days ("the
loudest small bird in the forest" I have told people more than once) and
they sometimes come around our barns and outbuildings to pick out spiders
and other tidbits from the eaves and corners. And so this was my initial
reaction to the bird gleaning along the sidewalk outside the kitchen. I
said to myself (actually out loud... I do this,) "Oh look, a Carolina
wren." But the shape wasn't quite right. The bill wasn't quite right. And
it was pumping its tail, not incessantly, but definitely it was pumping its
tail, more than a wren usually does. It did not move quite like a wren.

As mentioned, I was in the kitchen, the best place to watch our feeders and
surroundings. I grabbed my binoculars from the kitchen table where I
generally keep them, and I focused on the stranger, only twenty feet away
outside the northside window, gleaning like a warbler from the grass and
earth along the edge of the concrete sidewalk.

When it turned away from me I saw the yellow coverts, the only yellow I saw
on the rather dull bird. And I went through my mental checklist of what it
could be. "Winter... Yellow... Siskin?" No, the pattern wasn't right, and
the behavior wasn't right. The dark eye-line and the lighter supercilium
were obvious, one of the reasons I first thought "wren." But it had a
lightly streaked breast, unlike a Carolina wren, and the beak wasn't right
either. What's that? A slightly rufous crown? What?! PALM WARBLER! I ran to
grab my tattered copy of Sibley from the living room bookshelf, along with
my SLR camera from the top of the piano in the music room, then dashed back
to the window. These actions took me only fifteen seconds, even on my bad
knees. The bird was still there.

"Drat!" (or something to that effect...) The battery was too low on my
"good" camera. So I resorted to 9 shots with my iPhone. The bird was
noticeably less robust than a song sparrow a couple feet from it on the
ground.

After a full two minutes of observation, I fumbled with my Sibley trying to
find the right page, and the bird flitted away to the woods nearby, along
with a scramble of juncos from under the feeder. I will admit I did not
notice definitively if the bird displayed any white margins on its tail. I
lost sight of it in the dried pokeberry and forest litter past the picket
fence. And although I stood there for ten minutes it did not return.

So, upon considerable reflection and review I have concluded that it could
not have been anything other than a palm warbler. Unfortunately, my iPhone
photos provide no help. Too blurry.

I am a professional skeptic. (Actually true.) Those who know me know that I
am not prone to sensational claims. I saw this bird clearly and observed it
very well, particularly once I realized its significance. I used 8x
binoculars from twenty feet away. I have a lifetime of experience with
nature, including birds, since my youth. I have been engaged more or less
in the hobby of listing since I turned 40 in February 1994.

I may finally relent and make an ebird report, just so it gets into the
record that many follow these days. I also will submit this sighting to The
Cardinal, which I still regard as the publication of record.

Bob Evans
Geologist, etc.
Hopewell Township, Muskingum County

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