When I woke up this morning and it wasn't cold, I hoped we had some south
winds last night to unstick migration, and I wasn't disappointed. It was
the best morning of the year at White Oaks Park (and my nearby backyard).
Migrants included:
Acadian 1 (presumably the same bird that has been around for two weeks, way
ahead of his peers, who are just starting to show up)
Great crested 1
Gnatcatcher 1
RE vireo 5
BH vireo 1
YT vireo 1 (FOY)
Scarlet tanager 2 (including one in the birdbath again - aaaah . . . .)
Swainson's thrush 1 (FOY)
Wood thrush 2+
Catbird 5
Yellow-rump 3
BTB 3 (FOY)
BTG 1
Worm-eating 1
Parula 2
Yellowthroat 1
White-throated sparrow 12
Towhee 2
I checked out the Mall at lunch. I won't go into details (so as not to
trespass on MDOsprey's grounds), but there was a singing Cape May warbler
near the food kiosk by Constitution Gardens.
Too bad the annual Huntley Birdathon was today. Instead, it was yesterday,
and we had to fight for migrants. Someone may post a more official account,
but the highlights were
Marsh wren
Probable sedge wren, but we are hoping for more confirmation
Pewee (1 only, at the end of the day, way down Barnyard Run)
Chat 1 (in the Woodcock Meadow)
Blackburnian warbler (near the rarely birded power line cut at the south
border of the park)
Prothonotary
Palm
Blue grosbeak
Pectoral sandpiper
Dunlin
Yellow-crowned night-heron (3, flying out of the marsh at 5:37 a.m.)
Overall, it felt very much like a slow day in mid-to-late April. There were
very few no resident migrants around, and the later-arriving residents were
either absent or in very small numbers. We managed to find 4 Acadians
(after no luck for hours); the aforementioned one pewee; one veery; no
Swainson's, few cuckoos, buntings, and tanagers; few warblers other than
yellow-rumps and yellow-throats (no BTB, no blackpoll, no redstart, no
magnolia). Shorebird numbers were outstanding, although the ibis and
green-winged teal flew the coop the night before.
Nonetheless, we had a great time, as always, and raised a lot of money for
the summer naturalist intern (it's not too late to pledge, see the Friends
of Huntley Meadows website), Don't know the official tally, but I think it
was about 103 species.
Ben Jesup
Alexandria
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