Been a busy week, but finally starting to get head above water. Most of the pending emails have been addressed, to-do’s started to get checked off, and ALMOST done getting all the Christmas decor back in storage. The 12′ main tree is down and put away, now just two of the 7 footers to go. Definitely a downside of heading south before Christmas this year…err, last year rather. Even have the Haunt Lab back into production as we gear up for this year’s event – yes, we start prop building this early (and still barely get done before the big show). Need to do a bit of updating on the Average Year progress (link here), but so far, so good as I currently sit at 238 species for the year! (96th in US, 16th in Texas, 802 in IL (that should rocket up as we are home now), and shockingly 14th in my county. So far, a rock solid performance which brings us to today’s featured feathered friend.
If you “Ain’t too proud to sleep on the floor tonight”, hit the jump to read more about this R.O.C.K in the U.S.A.
Apologies for putting that tune in your head – as they say, the only way ya’ gonna get it out is by belting it out. Actually, on second thought, skip that, as I contend that is John Cougar, wait, Cougar-Mellencamp, wait Mellencamp, oh what the hell that Indiana guy’s worst lyrics – anytime you have to repeat the same line TEN times in a ROW, you need to put the cigarette down and pick up a pencil – good lord.
But there is one Rock I do like and to no surprise, it has feathers. This particular medium sized Wren prefers to bang its head out west.
I first came upon this lovely creature back in 2019 when we were exploring Red Rocks Canyon Conservation Area in Las Vegas, NV (link here). That was followed by a long dry spell as I failed to find similar hunting success on any of the numerous trips we’ve taken to Vegas since. The discussions with Linda usually went something like
“What you going to do today Bri?
“Hunt for a Rock Wren”
“How about we go gamble?”
“Are Rock Wrens found inside a casino?”
“Nope, wanna go see the dam?”
“Are there Rock Wrens at the dam?”
“Don’t know, don’t care, get your wallet we’re going gambling”
…and people try telling me birding is easy!!!
They say sometimes luck finds you – what they fail to mention is sometimes that is bad luck, just ask my elbow and ankle. Fortunately, in the case of this Rock Wren, it came bearing good tidings, more specifically (courtesy of Cornell) a “keree kerre keree, chair chair chair, deedle deedle deedle deedle, tur tur tur tur” full of varying pitches and inflections. For an introduction, take a listen on Cornell’s Rock Wren song page (link here).
We stayed at the Las Cruces KOA in NM on our trip to Arizona in January 2024. Note, there will be a few comments about this particular place at the end of this post. One morning I walked out of the RV to an odd little melody. This was the first time I had actually heard this Wren’s calls so it caught me off guard. With that amount of nuance and change between segments, I immediately went to a Thrasher as they tend to be similarly inconsistent and “creative” in their mockings. There was a Curve-Billed Thrasher in the area the other day (future post foreshadowing), so consider me skeptical at that point.
Before I go any further, I should probably mention this series is a bit of an experiment on the composition front. If you haven’t noticed already, I was lucky enough find this Rock Wren on a rock which I find quite amusing. Problem is, I was going crazy in the digital darkroom trying to figure out which crop I liked best…lots of rocks, close cropped rocks and rocks included in the foreground to the point I just threw my arms up in surrender and did each shot slightly different. This is where you come in, hoping you can help on what composition you like best for future scenarios in the darkroom!! Shot above…cropped rocks, shot below..wider crop with little rocks included.
Okay, back to the story. After a few minutes of cocking my head around like a Burrowing Owl, finally spotted the source of the sound – a mere 20 feet away sitting on a pile of rocks a the edge of the RV pad – “Not a Thrasher”. Quietly made my way back in to get my RV and rather shocked it was still there when I returned. My fellow birders know all too well these feathered beings are rarely accommodating to us bird paparazzi.
(more rocks in the foreground)
From there it was all work – take shots, improve position, take more shots, get lower, take more shots, change angle (but apparently NOT enough to get those damn twigs out of the frame), wait for the glint, more shots. Marlin Perkins’ would be proud (may have just dated myself). All the time, this little guy (or gal, they are similar looking) just went about its business scanning the rocks and exploring the crevices looking for the meal of the day.
(just a smidge of rocks in the foreground with full crevice)
I have to say, this is my kind of birding, simply step out of the RV and fill up the tin with a new bird for the year. Oh, and to have a nearly perfect setting. These Rock Wrens are perfectly camouflaged for their preferred rocky desert habitat. Trying to find them out in the desert scrub is extremely frustrating and they rarely just stand there and let you take pictures like this specimen. Ron and I spent oodles of time trying to get one in the tin for his check last year even though the Merlin App was busy telling us it was nearby. Yes, “oodles” is an official time unit at Intrigued and represents the period of time between the point when the hunt is no longer fun and when I start cussing like a drunken sailor.
(tight crop to the point the crevice is almost lost)
Let’s give some background on Dwayne. Early it was mentioned this Wren fits in the middle of the family relative to overall size. Smaller than that massive Cactus Wren featured recently (link here) that comes in the 7″ to 8.7″ range, but larger than the more common House (4.3-5″) or Carolina (4.7-5.5″) Wrens. Based on my experience, it really doesn’t jack its tail up like those other family members, but it does have those distinct tickings on its wings prevalent in all the other family members.
Cornell did provide a cool fact that may be helpful in future hunts. The Rock Wren will decorate the entryway to their nesting site which is usually located in rock crevices. They will embellish the walkway to the opening with various stones and ornate trinkets that catches their fancy. Cornell claims the purpose is unknown, but one theory (read “mine”) is it is done by the female so when the husband comes home from a drunken night at the bar he’ll trip over the items alerting the female in ample time to get here paramour safely out of the nest in time. For some reason the bird academia have not embraced this theory…yet ha!
Lastly, I wanted to say a few words about the city of Las Cruces. NM. The Las Cruces KOA is absolutely fabulous. It sits elevated to the city as a whole with incredible panoramic views of the area. I recommend it for anyone that needs a place to stay while traveling in that area.
Please stop reading now if you happen to have an affinity for that particular city….I’ll wait until the room clears.
Begin rant….
I am not fond of the city itself. The first thing that caught my attention was inside Dollar General. I have never been in a retailer that was absolutely cranking hardcore rap. No censoring and as raw as it gets. I am pretty indifferent on the genre, but pretty sure the children in that store are too young for that content. There was also a big discussion with a customer regarding the validity of a $2 bill she was trying to pay with. None of the store workers had any clue what it was and were busy looking it up on the Internet. From there we went to the city’s main grocery store. First thing we see is a drug deal going down in the side lot, 50 feet from the store’s security guard. We needed goods, so we proceeded. Grabbed our stuff and then met twice on way to car by sketchy individuals begging for money. Last stop was to get a carry out pizza at a local establishment. Spent my time waiting for the pie reading a whole wall of placards pertaining to bringing weapons on the premise – left side was dedicated to the state laws that implied one was allowed to carry where the right side was dedicated to explaining why it is illegal to carry there. I was dumbfounded and based on the individuals coming for carry outs, I was clearly on side left.
On the way back I did some research on this place. The first place I find is this Travel-Safe site that is off nominal (link here). Medium Safety Index and Medium/Low concerns on their breakouts. Then Crimegrade org (link here). First glace a B+ safety rating, that doesn’t sound bad as long as you simply ignore the F ratings sections in their colored map and their totally red (F rating) map further down on their Total Crime map. By the way, a C+ and a B+ and a B is at best a B rating. Next up, the NeighborhoodScout website (link here). First stat is a Total Crime Index of 1. seems impressive, but on further digging noticed that means it is SAFER than 1% of all US cities. Continuing, Citytistics.com (link here). They have a crime rating of..F.. but also note it is A+ related to cost of living there. But there is more…on to Ovogo (link here). Murder above average, rape above average and aggravated assault elevated. The good news is you won’t actually be robbed when they are done assaulting you as robbery is below average. Alarming for Linda, they recommend she never walk alone at night and carry a whistle. I’ll let you summarize the above info and come to your own conclusion.
…end rant
Take care everyone and hope you enjoyed this cute little Rock Wren.
Wildlife Intrigued 
Nice Rock and Wren. Welcome to NM, where the lack of rule of law is a badge of honor for our corrupt politicians. A blue state at its worst, and worse of all, we are getting infested with Californians on top of neighboring states busing their homeless here.
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I do see a lot of movement out of California to Texas and Las Vegas. Not sure of the impact to those states yet, but hopefully they will remember the reason they left. I read an article about how Newsome moved all their homeless out for a visit from Biden, but they never mentioned where they were moved to – apparently NM was one of those places. I guess I am just fed up with not feeling safe in certain cities – the shocking part is this was all during the DAY. I’ve been to Chicago, spend a lot of time in January close enough to touch the southern wall and host of other areas that have a natural level of danger to them, but honestly, we have experienced little issue during the daylight hours which is why I was extra shocked by our Las Cruses experience. Most of all, I am fed up with politicians trying to claim I do not have clearly spelled out Constitutional rights as they try to limit my abilities to keep my family safe while in turn they stay protected behind their walls and bodyguards. For the record, my wife and I do not carry whistles.
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When we were downtown, I was panhandled coming to work and leaving work. I usually had to step over homeless folks to get into the office. There were often gunfights as well. There is a lot of gang activity here.
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Does not sound like a place I want to spend a lot of time in.
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A pretty little bird with a pretty song. Very throaty it seems. Visited New Mexico years ago when I worked in West Texas. There are no easy answers. If there were, someone would have made a bushel full of dollars by now. Which doesnāt mean some folk are not peddling crap and mKing money but itās not the answer.
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I read on Cornell that they can have as much as a 100 different tunes in their call which is absolutely amazing for a non-mocking bird. This was our first time to New Mexico — well, since age 10 or so. They have some lovely landscapes and for the most part we had little issue in the other locations we birded in the area – that may have been blind luck, but sometimes ignorance is bliss. I guess I am at a point where I am no longer expecting “answers” rather just some form of movement in the right direction – stem the degradation if you will. We purposely live in the country, beyond the big city lights and bustle for its friendly neighbors, peace, tranquility and safety for a few of the reasons. My wife doesn’t have to worry about walking at night and security is NOT based on a plastic whistle. Time will tell, for now there are plenty of other places to explore. Take care Jerry and appreciate you dropping in.
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Sounds a pleasant place for a cosy weekend away, I would imagine the night life to be quite interesting. To be fair I wouldn’t feel safe in our local city after dark but compared to that place in NM it’s probably on par with Disneyland.
Nice Wren, nice shots. I bet those rocks blew the exposure in that bright sun and those twigs? All part of nature but some would fiddle with their chosen post processing installation and ‘poof’ they would magic away.
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Eh, I could go off on this whole topic and trust me, I held back on the majority of the experience – it just happened to set me off and I am tired of seeing what is happening to cities around this country. Will there always be bad actors..sure, will there always be some specific areas that may have a higher degree of risk…sure, but I am seeing very little action that might stem the downward spiral – telling people to carry a whistle is NOT the answer. Note, it was especially comical to see that the City of Las Cruces website itself has a video on their title page of them placing numbered CSI bullet casing markers on the ground next to a car (https://lascruces.gov/safety/police-department/lcpd-transparency/crime-statistics/).
You are absolutely right on the blow outs – I did fiddle with the curves to get that back while preserving the details in darker Wren body, but decided to limit myself on the rest of the tweaking (like the twigs) – if someone really wants it that clean I can certainly do it, but as you know, at some point you lose the natural feel of it – I keep kicking myself for not paying more attention to the background (and foreground) when in the field – one step to the right or left would have solve that entire issue. There’s always room to improve, I guess that is the fun in the hobby. Take care B.! and glad to see you are posting again.
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Very cute little bird. That must have been the one Merlin heard while Jan and I were photographing the Bewick’s at Red Rock Canyon. Very appropriate to have “rock” in their name, since they spend “oodles” of time among the rocks.
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Likely, it could have certainly been sitting right in front of you and unless it moved could have been easily overlooked – especially with the other +1s that were catching your attention. Now you will be able to detect when that “oodle” unit is met when we are out in the field ha!
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I must be learning something… I saw those tiny checkerboard marks on the wings and tail, and instantly thought “wren”. For the additional details, I have you to thank. I did have a listen at the link you provided – you’re right, the variety is remarkable. Part of its song sounded just like a grasshopper’s wings flying across the arid scrabble.
Regarding degree of cropping… I tend to enjoy a variety of crops all in one post. I love seeing the bird up close, but I also enjoy seeing a bit more of its habitat. The balance you struck seems perfect to me!
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Brian, glad you got these lovely shots of the rock wren on this trip! It sounds like Linda may be reluctant to return! I know I would be. š¤£
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Yeah, thinking Linda will choose a different route the next time we head to Arizona. She has more than a whistle, but no since taking any unnecessary chances, there are plenty of other places to stay. Really appreciate you dropping in Cheryl, hope all the health issues are starting to subside.
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I am having a litany of issues with WP across the board – I’ll continue to look into the issues on my side. At the moment, I have to have both Firefox and Chrome up at the same time – Firefox (preferred) for authoring and replying back on my posts and then Chrome to get the like function to work and/or comment on other WP posts – absolutely frustrating. Thanks for letting me know so I can hopefully get closer to remedying it.
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Ah, you are definitely on to the Wren calling card! I was pretty shocked about their degree of song, again, if I had not seen the bird itself, I might have just written it off as a Thrasher just showing off. Glad you liked the crop options Sam, I tend to treat each image as a separate work and start from scratch on each one that tends to give me some inherit cropping option, but when I do have bursts of what turns out to be the same shot I get to really explore options and compare them side by side. All of those processed shots go into the gallery – it isn’t until I prep the post that I make a determination of what is included and what is passed over. Thanks for dropping in and hoping that cold front is out down there by now.
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Heh. One cold front leaves town, another rolls in. Wednesday night is supposed to sink below freezing. February is our month of “winter” and I’m enjoying every minute.
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We are currently covered with the white fluffy stuff and my ankle is not liking have to clear the pavement and walkways – just letting the 300 feet of the rest of the driveway go for now – if someone really wants to see us they can plow through, welcome to country life ha. Been trying to catch up on my Illinois birding, but we are suppose to sink into the negative temps again this week ugh, Trying to get Linda to head back down to Texas – she did just plan the Arizona trip in late March so there’s relief in sight.
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Ah, I remember those days of digging out. Think cafe mocha, with cream. Mmmm.
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This new WP comments interface is screwing me over left and right and missing comment after comment – now trying to make sure I like everyone I respond to so I can go back in on whatever order WP is using to stack these comments now and find the ones I that got past me. I am doctor ordered free of caffeine (for probably more than 20 years now) so I’ll have a warm cup of cider to relate hehehe. Take care Sam.
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I also love this wren. I tend to hear it before I see it and their vocalizations really help to locate them among the rocks they blend in with so well. Your photos are wonderful (I like all of them). I had not heard that they decorate the entrance to their nests–that would be a fun thing to see.
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Thank you on the kind comments regarding the shots Tanja. They are definitely up there in the highly vocal bird category – to our benefit, as you mentioned they can be tough to pick up! The entryway decor was also news to me, now I am on the hunt to get a picture of that – we are heading back out to Arizona pretty soon so thatw should give me a good chance, especially since we will be there in the spring this time. As always, thanks for dropping by!
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