[va-bird] Likely Gray Kingbird in Arlington

Va birders

Mid-afternoon today I was on my back deck when a bird flew into the top of a tree about 60 yards away. I checked it out and thought Mockingbird with its tail down. Then it hopped and perched in profile, in good light, and I saw a white underside and white wrapping around the side of the neck, and thought Kingbird. Then a gray back and gray crown registered, and a hint of a dark mask, and I thought (could this possibly be a) Gray Kingbird. There was no white in the tail or wings and the bill was long. This was all about 3 seconds long and I was seeing the bird very well. It hopped a couple times to less visible positions and I thought about grabbing my camera, which was right there, but I'm glad I didn't. The bird flew down, with its underside towards me and wings open, and had a white underside with a yellow wash in most of the wings. Wow! flashed through my brain as fast my neurons could fire.

It's an almost unbelievable bird, I know, but that's what I saw. You look at so many common birds over and over and then something like this shows up and you almost strip a gear trying to get up to speed. Three seconds doesn't sound like much but it was enough to get it; with the underside view I can rule out any other ID. I'm glad I went to Florida in April and saw this bird where it's supposed to be.

After digesting it all for a few hours and looking at the guides and my pics from FL, I do believe there was a Gray Kingbird in Arlington this afternoon.

I walked the neighborhood hoping to get a pic but couldn't relocate it, and set up my scope on the tree, but no luck. It's likely long gone.

As a surprise bonus to a remarkable day, around 6:30 a bird flew into a nearby tree crown and perched. It turned out to be a Common Nighthawk perched on a bare limb in plain view, and stayed there for an hour plus. The scope was right there and I got 50+ shots. Even with my crummy digiscope setup one of them should be good, I haven't even looked at them yet.

Check out everything!

John Fox
Arlington



--
Using Opera's  !@%$#%@  e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/

You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email 
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.

Other related posts: