Fridays storm may have provided the impetus for a good flight night last
night, particularly given how late in the season it is. White Oaks had a
good diversity of birds this morning. Migrants included:
Wood thrush 1
Swainsons 2
Gray-cheeked 1
Veery 1
Thrasher 1
Scarlet tanager 2
RE vireo 2
Blackpoll 4
Canada 3 (including one in my yard Id previously seen only two this whole
spring)
BTG 1
Redstart 1
Worm-eating 1
Ovenbird 3
Yellowthroat 3
I also had all of the usual breeding flycatchers, including more than usual
Acadians, so Im guessing that they are still migrating. Speaking of
breeding, theres a lot of that going on. This morning I saw a hideous
recently fledged towhee, a slightly more attractive immature cardinal, and a
downright adorable baby phoebe (one of four I saw Thursday). I just love
watching him pump his stumpy inch-long tail like a big phoebe. Yesterday
afternoon I was at a party, pointing out to neighbors the downy nest 20 feet
from the deck where we were. Everyone enjoyed watching the mom repeatedly
returning to the hole 4 feet up in a small dead tree (that they fortunately
had not cut down).
Speaking of Oh, Canadas, white-throated sparrows are still around in small
numbers; I had one at Huntley yesterday, and one at my feeders this morning.
There are still CHATS in the Woodcock Meadow at Huntley, but they put on
much less of a show than last week. Perhaps they have their territories all
staked out now, so they can concentrate on the hard business of skulking and
being uncooperative.
Might be a good afternoon for Monticello, one of the last . . . .
Ben Jesup
Alexandria
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