Hello, birders.
I couldn't get out of bed this morning after staying
up late last night so I didn't get to the park until
8:30am. After 15 min. of searching, I refound the
LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE. It was near where I found it
yesterday, but about 70 ft. to the east, perched on
top of a cattail. Some goldfinches flew into this
area and when I put my binoculars on them that's when
I saw the shrike. Like yesterday, it seemed to be
hunting insects on the ground and also like yesterday,
songbirds and the shrike seemed to ignore each other.
E. MEADOWLARKS were common and vocal near this spot.
After the watching the shrike, I surveyed part of the
Meadow Trail, including the duck ponds area. It was a
good sparrow day, at least for variety if not number.
Raptors weren't too bad, either. 9 species of
sparrows today - E. TOWHEE, CHIPPING, FIELD, SAVANNAH,
SONG, SWAMP, WHITE-THROATED, WHITE-CROWNED and D.E.
JUNCO. All but the Chipping were in the vicinity of
the Meadow Trail, it was near the Visitor Center.
Raptors - T. VULTURE, B. EAGLE (2 ad., 2 imm.),
RED-TAILED, AM. KESTREL and ACCIPITER SP. One of the
eagles didn't like a Red-tail using the same thermal
as it. After a few swipes at the hawk, the R.t.
soared lazily away.
I had 2 PURPLE FINCHES also, one of each sex. The
male was singing.
The weather was quite different today, from 49 F at
8:30 to 64 at 2:00. 100% sun, windy in the afternoon
but not as much as yesterday.
Lots of butterflies today - 8 species. Not bad for
late October.
I ran into Kurt Gaskill's group this morning. They
were going to look for the shrike next. They had at
least a couple of LINCOLN'S SPARROWS at the park. A
couple of birders from Arlington also saw a Lincoln's
near the fishing pond.
Scott Baron
Fairfax, Va.
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