On Friday the 8th at 3PM I was sitting in a meeting in the
Keck laboratory on the eastern shore of Lake Matoaka on the
Willaim & Mary campus. The conference room is entirely
paneled with windows, and as often happens a warbler collided
with one of the windows during the meeting. Unable to
identify the stunned bird from inside, I ran out to get it,
only to find, much to my surprise, a female Kentucky Warbler
lying on the sidewalk. It flew to a tree, called, and
departed as soon as I tried to grab it. Only then did I
notice a small flock of birds descending on the tiny
vegetable garden next to the building. I went back inside,
and with the other meeting participants (2 Fish and Wildlife
Service biologists and a biology graduate student) we watched
the action from inside. I drew everyone's attention to what
I said was a nice male black-throated green foraging deep in
a butterfly bush in the garden. But, when the bird climbed
to the top of the bush and stood still for 10 seconds in full
view 25 feet away from us (no binoculars though), I shouted
in great excitement that it had a solid black face mask and
yellow below the black throat/chest badge, so looked like a
Townsend's. Oddly, there was a Western Peterson Field Guide
in the conference room (along with a pile of other natural
history books) so I showed everyone the picture and tried to
explain to these non-birders why it was so exciting (with
only limited success, as they were unimpressed since I told
them a Townsend's was seen in the state two years ago.) I
was unable to return to look for the bird until Sunday, when,
at noon with my kids in tow I was not surprised to fail at
relocating any warblers. I will try again Monday morning
with camara in hand. The bird is in near-breeding plumage
and is an adult male, so is easy to distinguish from a
black-throated green (which are all in winter plumage now as
well). It is extremely distinctive because of the amount of
yellow on the sides of the breast where a black-throated
green has none, and the black mask completely surrounded by
bright yellow, which is only slightly grayed in the middle.
The top of the head is dark, but I was unable to see if the
green on the back was stippled as it should be. Because
William & Mary is on Break through Tuesday, parking is easy.
The Keck lab is the only building on the east shore of Lake
Matoaka north of the art studios and common glory
amphitheatre, which are close to Jamestown Road. Keck can be
reached from the exercise trail that goes from Common Glory
to the north end of the lake, or by car from Campus Drive -
taking the first three left turns off of Jamestown Road
southbound - starting Wednesday legal parking will be
impossible and the Keck lab will be full of students again.
Daniel A. Cristol
Associate Professor
Department of Biology
College of William & Mary,
P.O. Box 8795
Williamsburg VA 23187-8795, USA
PHONE: 757 221-2405
FAX: 757 221-6483
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