Went to Ft. C.F. Smith Park in Arlington this morning looking for the
black-billed cuckoo. I heard it as soon as I got out of the car and a lady
birder, who was there before me, helped me find the bird, literally in the
tree by my car. I had OK, but not excellent looks at the bird. It then flew
out of the tree and we both lost it. I stayed awhile, saw some other birds
and left. I came back to the park at 3:40 in the afternoon. Someone was
there looking for the bird and said he had been there over an hour, had
heard it calling in the trees by the bird stream, but had not seen it. We
looked for the bird in those trees together. About then the lawn care folks
arrived with big noisy mowers and started mowing near the stream area. This
caused the cuckoo to soon fly out and down to some flowering trees next to
the fire road, across the unmowed field. We walked down there and I soon
located the bird in a flowering tree with a lot of caterpillar tents.
Initially the bird just sat for awhile and then turned around and ate some
caterpillars. We watched the cuckoo for 30 minutes or more and had excellent
views of the bird from every possible angle.
It was a very nice bird indeed.
If it doesn't fly out tonight, it would be worth looking for it tomorrow as
it seems quite tame and not afraid of folks looking from the ground.
Good Luck if you go to see it.
--
Donald Sweig
Falls Church, Va.
