Here's a lead to a good weekend hike i northern Virginia woodlands.
For the fourth year in a row, over the past week, I've been observing and
hearing, in a number of places in the state, what I assume is an Empidonax
flycatcher singing, apparently on territory, in woodland habitats. I have
mentioned these observations before, starting in 2004.
The habitat in which I find these birds( which I don't hear in northern
Virginia before the end of the first week of June), is deciduous woodland,
usually on the upper edge of flood plains but sometimes out of the flood plain
on woodland slopes. In these habitats, I also hear Acadian flycatchers with
their explosive songs given every 30-seconds to 1 minute; eastern wood-pewees
singing and calling; and great crested flycatchers. I continue to hear these
songs through the first week of July.
I have observed these birds numerous times; sometimes Acadians and/or pewees
are within view. On a couple of occasions, I've seen 2 of these birds engage in
what I take to be territorial defense. I cannot rule out that these "songs" I
am hearing are some alternate vocalization of either of the other two small
woodland flycatchers in the area.
I am assuming that what I am hearing are songs as the birds give these
vocalizations from a perch. The vocalizations are repeated every 3-5 seconds
and an individual may persist in this singing for 5-10 minutes from a single
perch. The songs are given less frequently than those of least flycatchers and
have a much sweeter, less raspy tone. The songs are much more frequently given
than those of the Acadian, which to me is less "sweet" with more of an
explosive burr.
I cannot rule out the purwee wood-pewee call but what I am hearing and seeing
is interpreted as a song given its frequency and the typical tyrannid perch
location.
I heard my first songs of these birds this year in the mixed pine-oak
woodlands of Kiptopeake State Park, Northhampton County, VA at 7 AM on Sunday
morning, June 10.
I next heard a single bird approx 50 yards upstream of the Colvin Run Mill
creek bridge over Hunter Mill Rd downstream of Lake Fairfax, near Reston,
Fairfax County on June 14 at approx. 1 PM. I observed this bird singing for
approx. 3 minutes. Three other "traditional" territories where I have observed
these birds over the past 3 years along this stream corridor have not yet been
occupied by this bird this year. I was out listening for this bird also on
June 13 in a short stretch of what I think of as its habitat but did not hear
or see them.
Last night, June 14, I heard 2 of these birds singing in a woodlot next to my
home in St Louis, VA, approx 5 miles west of Middleburg, VA in Loudoun County
VA. The birds appeared to be engaged in territorial defense on either side of
the road which divides this woodlot. I have also observed and heard them in
this area in 2006 and 2005.
In all three of these cases, Acadian flycatchers were heard singing their song
nearby. In both of the northern Virginia cases, wood-pewees were heard singing
and calling nearby.
Last year, I heard these birds on the Maryland side of the Potomac during the
Potomac Gorge Bioblitz on June 24, 2006. The birds were in Maryland, although I
was in Virginia.
I'd appreciate it if birders in northern Virginia attempt to view and hear
these birds. Most of my observations are along the upper Colvin Run Mill
drainage from a number of its upstream tributaries starting upstream of Lake
Fairfax and continuing along the main stream to its crossing of Rt 7. I expect
someone will confirm that I am not hearing something unknown but rather am
fixated on some different vocalizing behavior of either the Acadian or eastern
wood-pewee. It is very late for yellow-bellied flycatchers and as these birds
sing this song through June, this too rules out ybfls.
Thanks.
Craig Tufts
St Louis, Loudoun County
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