During the late afternoon on Sunday (11 November), I dropped by the Environmental Nature Center, in Newport Beach. Overall, things seemed fairly quiet, and the diversity of birds was low. However, a Pacific Wrenmade the visit interesting. This bird was, appropriately enough, in the redwood grove, which has a nice understory of thick ferns (which in some areasare as much as 4 or 5 feet tall). The redwood grove
is about 150 yards in along the lower trails (i.e., along the stream) of this relatively narrow, linear nature center.The bird calls fairly often, giving both the doubled "chimp-chimp" as well as a rapid, chattering like call (especially if it's agitated). At one point there was a group of visitors coming by on the trail where I'd been trying to get views of the bird, and the bird was apparently pushed further down the trail, about 75-100 feet further west along the lower-most trail. The call notegiven by the bird sounded tome more like that of a Pacific Wren, as opposed to thevery similar looking Winter Wren, and "most" of the features of the bird seemed better for the more expected Pacific Wren as well. (As the field guides point out, Pacific Wrens sound more like the chip noteof a Wilson's Warbler, while Winter Wren sounds more like the call note of a Song Sparrow). However,if anyone happens to go looking for this bird--at this date I would think there's a good chance the bird could bewintering--it might behelpful to get a sound recording of the call notes.

Doug Willick
Orange, CA