on 11/18/02 11:13 PM, VBKitchens@xxxxxxx at VBKitchens@xxxxxxx wrote:
VA Birders,
After contacting Haji Warf and discovering she lived only a few blocks
from me, I went and saw the hummingbird at her feeder today. It is indeed a
lovely bird, and I suspect that it may be an immature Rufous Hummingbird
because it has a brownish or perhaps even rufous (depending on the light)
cap. Altho I realize no field guide is 100% correct, both Sibley and
National Geographic show a reddish cap only on the male Rufous. This bird
also has a lot of rufous color on the lower breast/belly and in its tail, and
just a few spots of color on its throat. In any event, Haji is happy to have
visitors come to see it, and she hopes that Mary Gustafson will be able to
band it so that it can be properly identified.
Haji asked me to put directions to her house on VA-Bird, so here they
are. PLEASE NOTE: These directions are only for the VA-Bird Listserve;
please DO NOT put Haji's address or the directions on "Voice of the
Naturalist" on any other Rare Bird Alert. Haji Warf's address is 5210 North
27th Road, Arlington. To get there, coming from Falls Church, take Lee
Highway east to Harrison Street and turn left (north) at traffic light. Go
past shopping center to N. 26th Street and turn right. Go 1 block to N.
Greenbrier St. and turn left. Continue to N. 27th Road and turn right; 5210
will be in the middle of the block on the right. Coming from anywhere east
of Glebe Road in Arlington, take Lee Highway west to Harrison Street, turn
right (north) at traffic light, and follow directions as above. Haji's house
has an open porch on the front and east side. You may go on the porch to
look for the hummingbird, which seems to prefer the feeder by the back porch,
and the pots with flowering plants which are around it. The bird also likes
to perch on or near the top of the large shrub/small tree which is at the
back, left-hand corner of the side porch. I had my best looks at it there.
Now that I've given you directions, here is the bad news. Because N.
27th Road is only a block from Yorktown High School, permit parking only is
allowed on it from 8:00 am-7:00 pm Monday-Friday, and you are risking a
ticket if you park on the street there during those hours. There is a large
parking lot for the Yorktown Track at the corner of N. Greenbrier & 27th
Road, about half a block from Haji's house, which is open to the public, but
high school students park there from about 8:00 am-3:00 pm, so you may not be
able to find a parking space there during those hours. If noone else is
there, you can pull into Haji's driveway to look for the bird.
Good photographs could also be helpful in identifying this bird. Please
contact Charlotte Friend (friend55@xxxxxxx), Secretary of the VA Records
Committee, if you take a photograph which could be used for this purpose.
Good luck if you go to look for this bird, which was discovered yesterday,
Nov. 17, and was seen again today, Nov. 18, from about 8:00 am-4:00 pm.
Val Kitchens
Arlington, VA
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