VA Birders,
Pat Blyer, Bill Cross, and I drove out to Blandy Farm, Clarke Co., this
morning, just after the rain stopped, to look for the Black-throated Gray
Warbler. The distance from Arlington was about 65 miles, and we arrived
shortly
before 10:00 am. It was still overcast when we arrived, and we had no luck
finding the bird in the morning. We checked the sites where the bird had been
reported previously, and we also spent some time looking for Red-breasted
Nuthatches (which we never found today). About 2:00 pm, just as we were about
ready
to call it quits, the warbler was found in the area where it was first
sighted. Tom Saunders and the other birders at the site when it was found
quickly
spread the word, and we hurried over to see it. We got a brief glimpse or 2
before the bird flew off across the road to a clump of cedars, and then up into
a
row of fairly tall evergreens lining the west side of a private residence
across the path with stone walls on each side of it. (This path goes west,
back
to the other buildings.) We got fairly good views of the bird in the
evergreens, and then, after most of the group left, the warbler came back
across the
path and landed in a bare deciduous tree, where the 3 of us had outstanding
views of the bird for at least a couple of minutes. Then the bird flew off
toward the area where it was first spotted. I might also note that the bird
was
found shortly after the sun finally came out today.
I also saw the Black-throated Gray Warbler briefly on Dec. 31, 2003, when
it showed up in the late afternoon, but I only had 2 or 3 brief glimpses of
it then--just enough to count it for my only new VA bird of 2003! In fact, I
had left the area and was just about to drive off when one of the birders who
saw it came and got me. Many thanks to all the fine birders who passed the
word to me and others when the bird was found both times I went to Blandy to
see
it.
Finally, I thought you might like to know just how rare Black-throated
Gray Warbler is in Virginia. I checked my old "Blue Book," ("Virginia's
Birdlife, an Annotated Checklist"), published by the Virginia Society of
Ornithology
(VSO) in 1987. It lists 5 records for this species, all in the Coastal Plain.
The last record was in 1975. The latest (1998) edition of the VSO's "Birds
of Virginia" checklist still lists this bird as a Category 1 bird (documented
by photo or specimen, etc.) for which there are fewer than 6 records. Unless
there has been another record since 1998 (and I am not aware of any), this
bird would be only the 6th state record, the first seen in VA since 1975, and
the
first for the Mountains and Valleys region.
Val Kitchens
Arlington, VA
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