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Bewick's Wrens are small birds with long tails and slender bills. They are brown-and-gray with a distinctive white stripe over the eye. They often cock their tails as they skulk through tangles of branches and leaves where they eat the eggs, larvae, pupae, and adults of insects and other small invertebrates. After seizing prey in its bill, a Bewick's Wren crushes it, shakes it, or bashes it against a branch before eating it whole. After a meal this bird, like many others, may use its twig perch as a napkin, wiping its bill as many as 100 times. Bewick's Wrens are accomplished vocalists and a male's singing voice is its main weapon for year-round territorial defense. Dueling crooners perch within about 20 feet of each other to trade a barrage of competing songs and harsh calls. Bewick's Wrens are essentially non-migratory and range all year in the West Coast states and Baja California and in the interior southwest southward into south-central Mexico. They favor dry brushy areas and are also common in residential areas and parks. Bewick's Wren is common year round throughout Four Seasons, both in our riparian habitat and in our landscaped areas and yards. ~ Steve Edelman Birding CLUB Bird of the Month The Birding Club welcomes beginning and experienced birders to start or hone bird identification skills. Our main activity is a monthly bird walk along Four Seasons' nature trails, which follow native riparian woodlands. We keep a list of all species observed at Four Seasons and take seasonal field trips to nearby birding hot spots. We headed to the mountains on July 27 for our Summer Field Trip. We visited Thurman Flats Picnic Area, Audubon's Bearpaw Meadow Preserve, and Forest Falls. We saw 17 bird species, including several we don't see at Four Seasons (yet!), such as Steller's Jay and Band-tailed Pigeon. Some of us left the shade of the Ponderosa Pines to "skinny dip" in Mill Creek! After birding we had a delicious lunch at Thai Chili in Calimesa. For our August bird walk, we just did the Trail A/B loop between the bridges and thus managed to beat the heat and still get 20 species! The highlight was great looks at a Red-shouldered Hawk and we also saw and heard several Bewick's Wrens (our Bird of the Month). We meet on the first Saturday of the month at 8 am at the Potrero Creek (Trail A) trailhead at The Lodge parking lot. Email steve.h.edelman@gmail.com for current schedule and information. ~ Steve Edelman FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | SEPTEMBER 2019 37 Bewick's Wren photographed by club member Dave Kettering during a recent bird walk Above: Margi Spies and Marcy Edelman birding while skinny dipping in Mill Creek. Photo by club member Kathryn McGiffen Right: Adult Red-shouldered Hawk photographed just west of The Lodge by club member Dave Kettering during our Aug. 3 bird walk

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