I hesitated before making this posting, as I have no particular wish to be
considered more of a nut-case than presently! However, here goes.
Just as I was leaving my last bit of heavily depleted woodland this morning
at 10.15 - after a very pleasant walk through some of my local patch in
suburban Fairfax County (see following report) - I decided I might as well
'pish' into the silence. Immediately a small bird showing a lot of yellow
flashed across the path and went about 50 feet into the trees on the other
side. Between me and those trees was a tangle of mid-size bushes, so I could
see where the bird landed. As I was looking for it, it emerged, very actively
feeding, appearing and disappearing but never keeping still. First quick view
showed a bicolored warbler, dark above and strong yellow below. Obviously
either a Canada or a Magnolia, I thought, which was quite pleasing as I had
seen neither earlier in the walk.
By the next view, I could see for sure that the bird had no wingbars of any
prominence, did not have a yellow rump and did not have that characteristic
wide band across the undertail, though the undertail coverts were white. Must
be a Canada! But what were those heavy black streaks doing on the flanks?
Then I got a reasonable view of the front end. No discernible face pattern at
that distance, though I would surely have seen a Canada's spectacles. More
important, there was no sign of any necklace -- there was a vague sense that
the chin was brighter yellow that the throat, but that was all. I got a few
more looks at the bird before it disappeared entirely, but could not add
anything else to the above observations.
I was therefore quite puzzled and had to turn to my field guide to see what
obvious explanation I had missed! Imagine my surprise when the only species
that seemed to fit at all was Kirtland's Warbler, and it did fit very well
indeed! I had never seen one before and do not carry its 'image' with me,
never expecting to see one in Virginia. Hence my failure to even think about
this as a possibility when viewing the bird. [By chance, I am scheduled to go
to Michigan next June, especially to see it.] I spent the next 40 minutes
trying to relocate the bird, but failed -- turning up only an immature
Magnolia.
I did not notice a number of things that might have clinched the ID. Apart
from clearly being able to see the absence of such a noticeable head pattern
as Magnolia or Canada, I could not make out any head pattern, such as the
blackish mask that an adult male would have had. Nor did I see any
tail-jerking, though it is true that the bird never sat still for any moment
when such action might have been obvious.
As a one-observer sighting of such a rare Virginia bird, where I did not
manage to nail down all attributes, this is not a sighting that I feel like
writing up for VARCOM; and I am going to continue my plans to see this bird
definitively in Michigan next year! Nevertheless, I thought it was worth
putting this possible/probable(?) sighting on the record.
Comments on the above would be welcome.
Stephen Eccles
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