Rock Wren in Holmes County creates a lot of excitement

  • By Bruce Glick
  • May 1, 2014
  • 392
                        
Rock Wren in Holmes County creates a lot of excitement When Mike Hershberger called to say that he saw a Rock Wren at work south of Mt. Hope, it didn't take long to decide on a quick trip to Holmes County. Ironically, I had just been talking to several birders here in northern Indiana about the Rock Wren that showed up in a rural area hear Howe and Lagrange last year. Rock Wrens live in the western part of North America, from southern Canada on south to Mexico. Once in awhile birds that are migrating from the northern part of the breeding range show up in the east. Ohio had one such bird appear in Cleveland on December 7, 1963. It stayed around for seven days and was seen by many birders, but that was 50 years ago. This Rock Wren was seen briefly on April 29 and then disappeared. Since the bird was sighted at a busy work site, that wasn't surprising. Later on, it was learned that a large wren was seen the evening before around the buildings at a nearby home. This was most likely the same bird. On Wednesday morning, April 30, the Rock Wren was again seen at the work site where Mike had found it the day before. This was when I headed for Ohio. Since the location was just south of Robert Hershberger's business, Time & Optics, I stopped in there first. It was raining at the time and several other birders had taken cover at Robert's store. The Rock Wren had not been seen for almost five hours, since the early morning sighting. When the rain slowed to a drizzle, I went on over to the Hostetler Wood buildings where it had last been seen. Other birders there were standing out of the rain, keeping an eye out for the celebrity. Some folks had driven to Mt. Hope for lunch while it rained. I was catching up with a group of birders from around the state when someone yelled, "the bird is here". Sure enough, the Rock Wren was perched on a fence, but soon flew over to the roof of the next building. I had excellent looks at it but someone said that Robert hadn't seen the bird yet so I quickly drove the two minutes over to Time & Optics and picked him up. We were back within five minutes but the wren had flown around the back of a large work building. Meanwhile, Su Snyder from Wooster had gotten a photo before the flighty bird left the scene. The rain had started again and I decided to head for Indiana, via Sandusky where a Neotropic Cormorant (Ohio's first) had been seen earlier in the day. It wasn't raining in Sandusky but my three hour vigil there failed to turn up a second new bird for the state in one day. As it turned out, I was extremely lucky with the Rock Wren, since it didn't show up again that afternoon or evening. Hopefully it is still in the area and other birders will get a chance to see the very rare bird. Sincere thanks to Mike Hershberger and the owners and employees of Hostetler Wood who welcomed all the birders and were gracious hosts for this very rare bird sighting. Anytime something like this happens in Ohio, it's like a big family reunion. As writer Bruce Stambaugh posted, time spent looking for a rare bird isn't lost time when you can catch up with old friends and meet new ones. All in all, it was an amazing day. Near Farmerstown, three male Yellow-headed Blackbirds were also seen. In all my years living in Wayne and Holmes Counties I never saw even one Yellow-headed Blackbird. For information on these and other rare bird sightings, call the Bobolink hotline: 330-763-5119. Good birding! Bruce Glick 330-317-7798 birderbruce@yahoo.com


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