FreeLists / va-bird / [va-bird] Orchard Oriole? Nope!

[Phoebetria@xxxxxxx]

On Friday, the 4th, I heard what I was certain was an Orchard Oriole singing 
outside the window, from the grove of trees that holds a pair most of the 
summer.  The orioles usually arrive with the Chimney Swifts, about the 14th 
of April, so I was shocked at what seemed to be an unusual early date, but I 
never heard the song later in the morning.  

Yesterday, the 5th, among the cacophony (?) of grackles, robins, doves, 
mockingbirds, Fish Crows, and Laughing Gulls, I heard the syncopated oriole 
song again, and went outside to see the bird.  I had to wait about 15 minutes 
before hearing it again, and walking over to the spot, I found no oriole.  In 
another 15 or 20 minutes, a mockingbird tuned up and did the perfect Orchard 
Oriole, not a flaw in the imitation.  This same mockingbird, I think, started 
doing the Purple Martin's call/song about 10 days before they arrived here 
this year.  Whether he had heard a martin (or even an oriole) in passing this 
year or retained the song from past years, I have no idea, but I suspect the 
latter.  But it was a caution!  Spring arrival dates that are well outside 
previous early dates should probably be based on visually confirmed records, 
as many species of Neotropical migrants (warblers and vireos in particular) 
learn their songs, rather than being born with "innate" songs, and so they 
sometimes sing songs that sound like other species'.  Some species appear 
much more likely to sing the "wrong" song than others, but I've been amazed 
-- and wouldn't have believed it, had I not seen the singer -- to hear 
Northern Waterthrush do a perfect Kirtland's Warbler, Dark-eyed Junco perform 
a flawless Worm-eating Warbler, and Louisiana Waterthrush mimick Swainson's 
Warbler to a tee.  

At least, the starling around here that used to do a perfect Evening Grosbeak 
flight call seems to have moved on.  

The Rufous Hummingbird is still attending the feeders here (what is the 
departure date of this species in the state??!), the Painted Bunting not 
since 1 April.  Willis Wharf is beginning to get more Whimbrel as of 
yesterday (3 there, with 12 Forster's Terns, 19 Willet), and Oyster has large 
flocks of Dunlin.  Breeding-plumaged Common Loons are common on the Bayside 
all the way up to Crisfield, Maryland (don't miss those crabcakes at the 
Captain's Deck, probably the best on earth).  Mitchell Byrd reports three 
Harlequin Ducks still at the CBBT as of last Thursday.  

Ned Brinkley
Cape Charles, VA 
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