Bird #201 — Marsh Wren

cistothorus (from kistos, a flowering shrub, and thouros, rushing) palustris (marshy)

Wednesday, April 29, 1981 — 2:45 pm

Inverness, Illinois — Palatine Road east of Barrington Road

The large marshy area about a mile east of Barrington Road where I saw this Marsh Wren has since been incorporated into another housing development.  Most of the reeds have been removed and replaced with sterile grassy edges.  At the time of this sighting, it was still fairly wild.  Only the roads for the housing development had been put in.

I walked and waded through the cattails for about twenty feet until I got to the edge of open water.  I stood there for about twenty minutes and watched.  A Sora poked out of the weeds just a few feet away and foraged through the reeds without noticing me.  It was still in the area when the Marsh Wren appeared.  It was right at the edge of the open water, moving about actively.  It often perched between two reeds with one foot on each.

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