VA Birders,
Spent some time birding Prince William Forest today, especially North
Orenda Road, Pyrite Mine Road, North Valley Trail, Taylor Farm Road, and Mawavi
Road. Picked up 45 species, including:
Cormorant (1)
Great Blue Heron (1)
Green Heron (1)
Red-shouldered Hawk (1)
Wild Turkey (1)
Yellow-billed Cuckoo (1)
Ruby-throated Hummingbird (1)
Hairy Woodpecker (3)
Pileated Woodpecker (5)
Eastern Wood-Peewee (12)
Acadian Flycatcher (23)
Great-Crested Flycatcher (3)
Eastern Phoebe (3)
White-eyed Vireo (6)
Yellow-throated Vireo (3)
Red-eyed Vireo (58)
White-breasted Nuthatch (1)
Blue-Gray Gnatcacher (11)
Wood Thrush (23)
Gray Catbird (6)
Brown Thrasher (1)
Northern Parula (29)
Pine Warbler (17)
Black & Whte Warbler (3)
Worm-eating Warbler (see note below)
Ovenbird (66)
Northern Waterthrush (see note below)
Louisiana Waterthrush (4)
Kentucky Warbler (3)
Common Yellow-throat (1)
Hooded Warbler (5)
Scarlet Tanager (4)
and the rest of the usual suspects.
Notes:
Pretty Pretty sure I had a worm-eating warbler, but the bird got away from me
before I got a good look at it. Checklist for PWF has worm-eating nesting in
park. The habitat was right, the bird looked right, but I only had it for for a
moment, and then the moment was gone.
Also, on North Orenda Road, had some waterthrushes that sure looked like
Northern Waterthrush to me. Checklist for PWF has Louisiana nesting in park,
doesn't mention Northern. Walking down North Orenda Road, to point where both
sides of the trail are pretty wet, wet woods with shallow pools of standing
water that looked like they had been there for awhile. On my right picked up a
Louisiana with no trouble at all, then three more. These guys were def
Louisiana, white throats, whitish below, white eyestripes flaring behind eye,
all very Louisiana like. The Louisiana were in the same general area, but they
didn't seem to be bombing around together. No one was vocalizing.
On the opposite side of the trail, in very same habitat, picked up another
waterthrush, then another, then two more. I'm thinking I must have stumbled
into Waterthrush City. All of a sudden I've got waterthrush everywhere. I have
two in the low understory directly in front of me, a third moving up and down
to my immediate left. On the ground, maybe 15 yards from me, I'm looking at
another waterthrush, when two more come walking into my field of view. In the
near distance I can see two more waterthrush bombing around. I step back to try
and get a count of these new birds, which was pretty difficult to do because
all of these these guys are moving around at a pretty good clip.I had a minimun
of four birds, and perhaps as many as seven birds on the left side of the
trail. These birds to my immediate front sure seemed to be bombing around
together, with lots of chatter I didn't really recognize. I got some pretty
good looks at three of these birds. At first, I thought more Louisiana, but as
I looked at these guys, it occurred to me that these birds sure looked like
Northern to me. Streaked throats, buffy eyebrows, yellowish below. So, now I'm
stuck. Who are these guys? If you know anything about PWF, I'd be interested in
knowing if you think it's possible Northern waterthrush could be present and or
be breeding in PWF at this time of the year? Please respond to me directly?
So, this is what was going on in PWF today. Had some great looks at
yellow-throated vireos, the hooded and kentucky were great, the black & whites
were a pleasant surprize (although I had them last June in PWF too), and I
don't know what's up with the waterthrush.
Paul Kane
Falls Church, VA
You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
