Mark Moran's report of my absence last week was accurate, but I saw a
beautiful hooded warbler in the rain this morning in White Oaks Park. The
best of the warblers I saw on Saturday was a chestnut-sided, which handily
beat out painted redstart for that title . . . given that I was at the
Sweetwater wetlands in Tucson. Four of the other warblers I saw there would
have been life birds earlier in the week, but chestnut-sided is an
accidental there. My family was there on
not-officially-but-how-could-I-not-spend-a-lot-of-time-birding vacation. I
saw or heard some 137 species in 8 days, about 20 of them lifers, and many
more species that I had only seen once or twice before. Some of the lifers
were relatively common western species (e.g., Bell's vireo), but a few were
pretty special. Some of you may remember Philip Kline, a colleague of mine
who was in D.C. for a few years before moving to Tucson about 2.5 years ago.
Philip took me on a brutal 7+-hour hike down Sycamore Canyon (just west of
Nogales). We missed 5-striped sparrow, but got wonderful views of the
dependable rufous-capped warbler. At Madera Canyon, my seven-year-old
daughter and I spent a few minutes watching a singing flame-colored tanager,
and my whole family got see the least grebe at Sweetwater through the scope
(although it wasn't as popular with my daughter as the baby great horned
owls in the easily visible nest (allegedly expropriated from the local
Harris's hawks). (Jason, that's a few more birds that Sarah has that you
don't . . . .).
It's good to be back though. April is a tough time to leave D.C. - it's my
favorite month here. Besides, I figure if I can get chestnut-sided in
Arizona, why not a Townsend's warbler in Virginia? I'll be checking all the
black-throated-greens in White Oaks carefully this year. Good birding.
Ben Jesup
Alexandria
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.
