almost summer but not quite

Relatively slow morning on Saturday at the MNC, one addition to the patch list was a Willow Flycatcher giving off 'whit' notes. Overall the area by the stream has been quite nice for flycatchers in general. Otherwise only notable migrant was a Prairie Warbler. At Blue Mash I added FOY Eastern Flycatcher and Lesser Yellowlegs. Several Yellow Warblers gave nice views, several Prairies were heard as well. Well, seems like things are winding down now until fall. Time for a trip to Montezuma where things should be a little more interesting even at this time of year.
We are on 108 species for the year and 118 for the patch.

A day in May

Nice day at the MNC. Highlights were two Blue-winged Teal that stuck to the same corner of the lake as where they were found last week. Other additions to the patch year list were Bald Eagle (I assume it was a migrant), Great-Horned Owl (heard twice), Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Yellow-throated Vireo, Northern-Rough Winged Swallow, Northern Waterthrush, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Prairie Warbler and a Rose-breasted Grosbeak that kindly came to the feeders. Total tally for the year: 107, total patch list @ 117. Time to turn up something more unusual. I have plenty of suggestions but would not want to jinx it.

Blue-winged Teal pair

Bazinga! Now you see me now you don't

Great morning at Meadowside: Although warbler activity was not that great, I bagged a tally of 61 species in the end - not too shabby! And I guess I missed a few species especially warblers because many songs were heard, but to get visual confirmation seemed impossible at times. Quite frustrating and I thought I could hear them call Bazinga, Bazinga. The highlights of the morning were 9 species of warblers, Blackburnian and Hooded (heard only) the best among them. This was the best day I ever had in terms of Orioles, both Orchards and Baltimores were around, at one point even side by side in the same tree. Altogether 2 Warbling Vireos were had, one by the Nature Center, the other one along the road by Lake Needwood. At Lake Frank I ran into another birder who kindly pointed out 2 Blue-winged Teals - Nice and Thanks! Another great bird was found at the Lake Frank entrance off Timothy road: a Swainson's Thrush was giving great fews.
So in summary, we added to the patch list: Blue-winged Teal, Green Heron, Killdeer, Barred Owl, Chimney Swift, Eastern Wood Pee-wee, Acadian Flycatcher, Warbling Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Swainson's Thrus, Hooded Warbler, American Redstart, Blackburnian Warbler, Scarlet Tanage, Indigo Bunting, Orchard Oriole, Baltimore Oriole - total tally 109, year patch list @ 98.

Migs at the patch!

After a two-week break I was back at the patch and, boy, I did not regret it. It was slow to begin with but once I hit the trail that follows the river, things picked up with regards to neotropical migrants. In the end I tallied 10 species of warbler and I am pretty sure I missed one or two that I just could not ID in bad light. Altogether I added a whopping 13 new species to the year list: Osprey, Solitary Sandpiper, Great-crested Flycatcher, Blue-headed Vireo, Barn Swallow, Wood Thrush, Ovenbird, Louisiana Waterthrush, Black-and-White, Yellow, Black-throated Blue and Black-throated Green Warbler, Common Yellowthroat and Blue Grosbeak and we are at 80 species for the year, and 92 total patch birds. Not a bad day at all.

The night before I decided to drive over to Fran Uhler Natural Area to listen for Whip-poor Wills. As I got there I ran into Wayne Baumgartner. As we got ready to walk down to the river, with torch, tape, flint, you name it, anything to get us through the night, we realized one bird was calling right behind us at the barrier. We actually saw the bird's silhoutte swooping about in the dark and it kept calling for another 30 minutes. Nice! Now it's time to sack a Chuck-wills widow.

Osprey at Lake Needwood

The plan for the weekend was a road trip to Shenandoah, but that changed once we realized the weather was not that great and we already ran pretty late for it on Sunday. We still made it into Virginia but closer to home: the Occoquan NWR in Woodbridge. It's the closest NWR from the DC area and a prime birding spot with open meadows, marshes great for sparrows and rails, and the bay of the Potomac which is great for ducks, grebes, eagles, gulls etc. Since I promised the missus that I would not stop too often to look for birds and stick to the plan of making this a hike, I did not end up seeing too many birds. Also, the rain came down pretty heavy at the time. Still a few FOY highlights to be mentioned: At least 3 pairs of Ospreys were back on their nests. Also a couple of warblers were seen or heard: Yellow-rumped, Tennessee, Prothonatary Warbler (one each) and many Common Yellowthroats were out and about. When I looped back around the trail and passed the ponds to my left I heard a bird which I am now 80% sure was a King Rail (they have been reported from the site recently) but never got any visual. A good day out despite the miserable weather. I will be back with a report from the local patch next week.

More spring stuff

The weekend brought in a decent number of new patch as well as year birds at MNC (Meadowside Nature Center - why I keep abbreviating as MNR I have no clue). Among them some rather tarty birds I should have seen by now - but there you go.

New additions to the patch list: Common Grackle (are you shitting me?), Northern Mockingbird (yes, they are surprisingly uncommon), Purple Martin (well, if they had cleaned out the gourds once a year, I could have seen one a long time ago, but I guess that's too much to ask), Broad-winged hawk (nice), Ruddy Duck (why must I comment on every bird I don't know), Northern Parula .Total number of species: 79
Number of 2012 species:  66, new addition: all of the above (duh!) and Palm Warbler

Lake Frank delivers

It was a great morning @ MNR with a tally of 45 species. The first good bird of the morning was a White-eyed Vireo up the hill from the parking lot devouring a fat old caterpillar. It was clear from the start that a large number of Ruby-crowns had moved in and their subdued tsi tsi tsi song was heard often. Down by the pond a flock of 8 or so Tree Swallows was zipping around with at least on pair feeding young in one of the nest boxes. Two Blue-gray gnatcatchers were added on the way. At the junction between Muncaster Trail and Piney Run a patch tick in the form of two Brown Thrashers set the pace for the morning. At Lake  Frank which appeared initially dead, two great patch birds namely a hot-looking breeding plumage Common Loon and Horned Grebe were on show. Of course I did not miss the opportunity to take some craptastic pictures which I am sure will make you want to stab your eyes out with a rusty nail or something.

In terms of warblers only Pine and Yellow-rumps around today, but that should really be picking up from here on now.

MNR year: 58
MNR total: 73