All,
Fenton Day and I spent the day birding a few spots in Northampton
County. We began at Kiptopeke around 9:00am where the ASH-THROATED
FLYCATCHER was sitting in a bare tree visible from the parking lot. It
allowed us to approach as close as 20 feet as the tree was that close to
the sidewalk. Nice! We spent sometime chatting on the hawk watch
platform and the flycatcher was no where to be found when we left around
10:00 nor was it there when we returned at 2:00. Seems to be a morning
bird these days. The male EURASIAN WIGEON at Bulls pond called twice
before we were able to locate it among the hundred or so wigeon there.
A very nice and distinct single whistle. Thanks to a tip from Jethro
Runco, song bander extraordinare, we found what appeared to be a female
rufous morph Eurasian Wigeon at the landfill. This bird was the only
wigeon there and was clearly not an American. It had a rich rufous
brown head color that extended down the neck and continued onto the
chest. There was no gray as seen as on an American. The only field
guide we found that depicts a female in this plumage is National
Geographic though the bird looked very much like the basic plumaged (Jul
- Sep) male Eurasian Wigeon depicted in the Sibley Guide. I suppose it
could be male but if so it's in the entirely wrong plumage for late
November. Anyway, it was an interesting bird and I always a good trip
to the landfill. We searched in vane for Cave Swallows and came up
empty. About 15 Tree Swallows passed over the hawk watch platform while
we were there but there were no Cave's among them.
Happy birding.
Sue
--
Susan A. Heath
George Mason University
Environmental Science Department
Fairfax, VA
Secretary, Virginia Avian Records Committee
Keeper, Virginia Comp List at www.virginiabirding.org
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.
