FreeLists / va-bird / [va-bird] Huntley (4/6/05); RFI Lincoln's sparrow arrival dates

[bonxie@xxxxxxx (Chris French)]

VA-Birders:
Singing CHIPPING SPARROWS and BROWN THRASHER this morning at my community 
garden plot in Nottoway Park (Vienna, VA - Fairfax County).
But my purpose for posting is a day-late report from Huntley for 4/6/05 
including Lincoln's Sparrow sighting:

A beautiful morning of birding against and audio back-drop of trilling American 
toads and spring peepers this morning at Huntley Meadows Park (Alexandria, VA - 
Fairfax County).  Between 6:30am and 9am I tallied a little over 50 species.  
Most interesting for me was a LINCOLN'S SPARROW skulking around the start of 
the boardwalk - great views as it was only about 10 feet from me and allowed at 
least a full minute of unobstructed study.  Fine streaking across buff-colored 
breast; fine streaking continuing down flanks and covering vent/undertail 
covers; belly paler and seemingly w/out or w/less streaking (not seen well); 
broad gray supercilium contrasting with brownish "face" and warm/buffy 
submoustachial stripe.  It appeared smaller than a song sparrow (no other 
sparrows around for comparison during the sighting) and its behaviour was more 
consistent with what I'm used to for a swamp sparrow (low flight, skulking 
behavior).  Given the time of year, confusion with juvenile plumag
 ed swamp sparrows would not seem to be of any concern.  Despite my 
satisfaction with my own identification, I'd appreciate others suggestions on 
what else it could be based on what I think is a rather early date.  Looking at 
both Kurt's and Todd's resources on spring arrival dates as well as Cornell's 
Birds of North America, 4/6 seems early by a couple weeks.

Kurt Gaskill's No. VA abundance/arrival/departure table:
http://hometown.aol.com/kurtcapt87/abundance_table.htm
Todd Day's Spring arrival worksheet (on Sue Heath's page):
http://www.virginiabirding.org/springarrivals.htm

If accepted by CFARCOM (Chris French Avian Records Committee), it would 
represent my 181st species for Huntley.  Notes and mental images have been 
submitted...

TREE, BARN, and NRW SWALLOWs were present as was a long CHIMNEY SWIFT, along 
with one large group of RUSTY BLACKBIRDs.  KILLDEER, SNIPE, and GREATER 
YELLOWLEGS were enjoying the mudflats that used to be the central pond.

double-crested cormorant (1)
great blue heron (6)
black vulture (1)
Canada goose
wood duck (8+)
mallard
green-winged teal (heard, but could not locate)
hooded merganser (5)
osprey (1)
bald eagle (2 ad)
unidentified accipiter
red-shouldered hawk (1)
red-tailed hawk (1)
killdeer (2)
greater yellowlegs (4)
common snipe (3)
ring-billed gull (6)
mourning dove
chimney swift (1)
red-headed woodpecker (2 ad)
red-bellied woodpecker
downy woodpecker
hairy woodpecker
northern flicker
eastern phoebe (2)
blue jay (regularly seen/heard)
American crow
fish crow
tree swallow (5-10)
northern rough-winged swallow (1)
barn swallow (1)
Carolina chickadee
tufted titmouse
Carolina wren
golden-crowned kinglet (2)
blue-gray gnatcatcher (3-5, mostly heard)
eastern bluebird (2)
american robin
European starling
yellow-rumped warbler
pine warbler (probable, but not 100% sure - heard only)
field sparrow (singing)
song sparrow
Lincoln's sparrow (1)
white-throated sparrow
northern cardinal
red-winged blackbird
rusty blackbird (100+)
common grackle
brown-headed cowbird
American goldfinch

Chris French
Oakton, VA
bonxie@xxxxxxx

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