FreeLists / va-bird / [va-bird] Acadian Flycatcher at Riverbend/Yard Report

[Dendroica@xxxxxxx]

A short walk early morning at Riverbend Park this May 3rd. produced an 
Acadian Flycatcher, my first for the year, near the picnic pavilion north of 
the 
Visitors' Center.  Other migrants were about, but there was no big wave in the 
section of the park I walked.

Back home however, from about 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM, a wave or two of migrants 
visited my bird pools and leaf mister.  Among the 20 or so Yellow-rumped 
Warblers were breeding plumage male warblers--Chestnut-sided, Nashville, 
Ovenbird, 
Black-throated Blue and Black-throated Green. Other visitants included Orchard 
Oriole, Indigo Bunting, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Wood Thrush, Purple Finch, 
House Finch, Eastern Bluebirds, and American Robins, plus resident woodland 
birds 
which seemed to be attracted to all the bathing activity.

On May 1, I still had at least four Purple Finches including a spectacularly 
plumaged, singing male.  Today, I saw only a young brownish-streaked male with 
a hint of red.  A good number of White-throated Sparrows are still around (in 
fact there seemed to be more here today than previously).  Also, yesterday, 
May 2, I was surprised to find a male Red-breasted Nuthatch at the bird pools, 
a day on which I wondered whether the neo tropic migration would ever start in 
earnest.  It did today. 

Ralph Wall
Great Falls, VA