I went to Occoquan Sunday a.m. hoping to be able to get some pictures of
Lesser Scaup - but they were too far out on the Bay. I was met in the parking
lot by a birder who said that there were a bunch of hawks out - red-tails & a
sharpie. Walked around by the bay the long way coming out on to Bravo Road.
Just before the Charlie Road reached Bravo, I passed under a big tree with an
immature "sharpie" sitting in the top. Took a bunch of pictures since it was
posing so nicely. Downloaded them when I got home and discovered the bird had
morphed into something else; the belly was not striped like an immature
sharpie, the tail was not right for either a sharpie or a Cooper's (much too
short proportionally), the head was quite dark brown unlike either an immature
sharpie or a Cooper's, & there seemed to be distinct evidence of a mustache or
"sideburn" on the side of the face as well as a "whitish" superciliary line. I
make this bird to be either a female or an immature Merlin
.
Walked on around Bayview Road where a month or so ago the Le Conte's sparrow
was being seen & got into a bunch of sparrows - white-throats, song, swamp, &
American tree. Then I had this beautiful little sparrow pop out at the
intersection of Bayview & Easy Roads with a gold or amber chest band and
similar stripes on the head with a white center stripe (don't recall seeing
brown stripes allthough I will admit being overwhelmed by the "gold" stripes)
as is in my Peterson or National Geographic. Saw the bird 3 times (around
11:15-30), responding once to pishing. Couldn't get it in my camera to take
its picture. Although I haven't seen recent postings re: the Le Conte's, I
suspect that is what I saw & that it is still hanging around. Went by for an
hour or so yesterday (Monday) & saw only a couple of song sparrows & cardinals.
The merlin was no where in sight.
William E. Parkin
wparkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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