Sedge Wren

Status Rare vagrant. The first record was a specimen collected by Charles R.K. Allen on Seal Island on 2 October 1967. On 18 November of the same year a second bird visited the feeding station of Evelyn Richardson at Villagedale, Shelburne County. Since then, 15 individuals have been documented in the province: five individuals have been in spring, four on Seal Island between 18 and 24 May and one on Brier Island on 26 May 1971; six have been on Seal Island in fall between 22 September and 10 October; very late birds were at Hartlen Point, near Dartmouth, on 5 December 1982 (J. Cohrs), and on the Christmas Bird Count at Broad Cove, Lunenburg County, on 31 December 1976 (several observers); most unusual were two singing males resident in a sedge marsh in the Town of Yarmouth during July 1975 (several observers and photographs).

Remarks The Sedge Wren, formerly known as "Short-billed Marsh Wren," is readily distinguished from the Marsh Wren by its lack of a prominent eyestripe. It evidently has nested in small numbers in New Brunswick (Squires 1976), but its normal range lies largely further west of Nova Scotia.