Hello Fellow Birders:
I have just subscribed to va-bird and am loving every posting as it gives me
a "heads-up" about which migrants to anticipate arriving in my back
yard--thank you all.
Saturday my husband and I were treated to a rare (for us) sighting of a
Great-horned Owl in the upper meadow trail of Riverbend Park. (We decided
we had better enjoy the Park before Fairfax Co. Board closes it or reduces
the hours too much.) We had just passed the "warbler grove" when I turned
to look out toward the open meadow. My eyes were immediately drawn to a
huge football in some branches of a tree at the border of the open meadow.
I trained my binos on it and saw two large round golden eyes staring back.
In disgust (anthropomorphic) s/he turned his/her back to me. I dropped my
binos down quickly to wait for my husband to catch up to me so as not to
"scare" him/her away. (Owls and hawks, I have found, like to do the looking
and don't enjoy being looked at). We both got a great look at this
magnificent bird for about 30 seconds before s/he flew away to be
instantaneously mobbed by about six crows. For the next half hour the crows
harrassed this poor owl back and forth over our heads, allowing us several
great sightings of the owl in flight until they were diverted to harrass a
Red-shoulder Hawk who flew over calling repeatedly.
Other highlights (or frustrations) were several groups of warbler-sized
birds (no songs) feeding all around us in the tops of the canopies. The
light was so flat that we were only able to make out the Yellow-rumped out
of two or three different groups who moved through in a space of about 15
minutes. Later I was able to make a Chestnut-sided in the top of a tree in
the open meadow where the light was much more favorable. Tree swallows
avidly were working
the open meadow as were Bluebirdsand White-throated sparrows. I did hear a
N. Parula and a Prairie warbler but was not able to see them. I also heard
the "raspberry"-like buzz that sounded very much like the end note of the
Blue-winged warbler. I did not catch the higher first notes so I can only
remark it. In the distance I heard an E. Phoebe among Blue Jays, Cardinals,
C. Chicadees, and Titmice.
We have found birding in the rain, as long as it is not t-storming, to be a
pleasure since we usually are by ourselves with few to no dogs, bikers,
skaters, hikers, picnickers, children or other noisy neighbors.
As a postscipt, "my" Catbird arrived yesterday and went looking for his
raisins on my feeder tray. "My" E. Towhee was on my deck eating seeds
among the White-throated and Song Sparrows (first year one has come
regularly up on the deck as opposed to scratchnig around underneath.) The
30-40 some odd Goldfinches are now down to one pair since the male started
his apparent territorial singing from the branch over the thistle feeders
and a pair of Carolina Wrens were performing what apeared to be some type of
mating dance, bobbing up and down mirroring each other on the deck railing.
The male House Wren is chortling from several perches in the woods and the
Cardinal males are chasing each other around the yard. Red-bellied, Hairy,
Downy, Pileated and Flicker pairs are taking turns at the suet and peanut
feeders.
Spring in VA is great.
Darby Colwell
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.
