Hello, birders.
Although not an unusual species, it was fun to watch a
couple of WORM-EATING WARBLERS at Great Falls Park on
Saturday. As the male sang about 15 feet up in a
deciduous tree, the female was carrying material back
and forth to the base of a dead, small (maybe about 6"
diameter) tree. I couldn't actually see the nest, as
the bird flew into kind of a crevice near the base of
this dead tree and didn't want to get too close.
About twice a minute the female would fly out of the
nest and land on the ground on the side of the trail,
pick up several oak (?) catkins or a piece of a
decaying leaf, and fly back toward the nest. She'd
enter into the space and seconds later she would leave
to repeat the process. I watched the pair for over 10
minutes. I hope to come back to this spot later on
this spring.
I saw or heard the usual residents and migrants at the
park. A GREAT EGRET flew over the parking lot in the
early morning. I've never seen this species at Great
Falls before. I had 3 species of vireos (RED-EYED,
YEL.-THROATED, WHITE-EYED) and 10 species of warblers.
The most common warbler by far was YELLOW-RUMPED.
I enjoyed watching a BEAVER bathe itself at the mouth
of Difficult Run. At one point I had the Beaver and a
SPOTTED SANDPIPER in the same binocular view. Another
Spotted showed up but it was chased off by the first
one. I saw a flock of 3 CEDAR WAXWINGS but there may
have been more. I heard one SWAINSON'S THRUSH sing.
Scott Baron
Fairfax, Va.
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