Rock Wren in Maine

This morning about 8:30 I got my first text . . . a Rock Wren was feeding on ocean rocks in the parking lot of an Ogunquit, Maine restaurant.  I was in the car 10 minutes later.

A Rock Wren is a bird of the arid American West.  It is so adapted for the desert that it never drinks water, getting all of the moisture it needs from food.

So what was it doing in on the coast of Maine in November?

Like so many other western rarities that I have shown up over the last few months, it is a mystery.  My theory is La Niña has changed the weather patterns in the west and birds are getting caught up in the jet stream and dropped into Maine.

Whatever the reason, literally dozens of birders showed up to see this remarkably bird tame bird which hopped within a few feet of me several times. 

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