Hello, birders.
A distant whitish gleam that caught my eye, when I got
my binoculars on it, turned out to be a COMMON LOON.
13 of them were flying in a loose flock in a northerly
direction this morning over Sky Meadows. I see loons
migrate north over land in the spring each year, but
in the fall I never do. Do they tend to take a more
coastal route in the fall?
Other migrants/new arrivals while birding the Vis.
Center area, Snowden Trail and Gap Run Trail on this
sunny, cool day:
-Y.b. Sapsucker
-Blue-hdd. Vireo
-B. Creeper, incl. 3 in one tree
-Winter Wren, 1 was singing. Neat.
-both kinglets
-B.g. Gnatcatcher, 2 males, each foraging and singing
their thin catbird-like song
-Am. Robin
-B. Thrasher
-La. Waterthrush
-sparrows seen and heard were Towhee, Chipping, Field,
Song, Swamp, Wh.-throated, Junco
In addition, saw 1 male AM. KESTREL struggling a bit
while carrying a small mammal. RED-HEADED WOODPECKERS
were about. I found what I'm pretty sure is a
Red-bellied Woodpecker cavity about 30 ft. up in a
mostly dead deciduous tree. I unfortunately did not
have time to check to see if the Loggerhead Shrikes
were still around on the other side of the park, nor
did I have time to look for a reported vernal pool
with Jefferson Salamanders. Also, besides the
waterthrush, I haven't seen any spring warblers yet.
Scott Baron
Fairfax, Va.
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