VA Birders,
I had a Chipping Sparrow in my yard this morning. Thinking it was really
early for a Chippy, I checked my yard records back to 1997 and discovered
that this bird had arrived a full 2 weeks earlier than my previous early
record of March 30.
This afternoon, about 1:30 pm, when it looked like it had stopped raining
for a while, I decided to stop for a walk at Fort C. F. Smith Park here in
Arlington on my way to do some errands, and just as I was about to leave at
around 2:30 pm, I saw a bird drop into the weedy area behind the parking lot
that had white outer tail feathers but was brownish and considerably bigger
than the juncos I had seen in the area earlier. The only bird I could
imagine it to be was an Eastern Meadowlark, but alas, a walk thru the area
did not flush it. Then, as I turned around and headed back to my car, I saw
a bird fly into a tree at the back of the field which, when I got my
binoculars on it, was indeed an Eastern Meadowlark. This is my first record
of this species for Arlington County. I can only conclude that the bird (or
birds, if another one was still hiding somewhere in the weeds) must have been
migrating up the Potomac River and stopped off in this micro habitat!
Val Kitchens
Arlington, VA
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