Hi all,
It was a good day for warbler migration at Wheaton Regional today -- that is, for other birders! We arrived a bit late and got hung up trying to catch up with an elusive PHILADELPHIA VIREO which was with a rapidly moving flock of Red-eyes feeding and darting through the small trees in the field behind the white house. By far the earliest we have seen in our recollection, although I noticed others have been reported in recent days within the state. We met Jeff Shenot, Mike Bowen with two friends, and Diane Ford and between them they must have seen 12-13 species of warbler including 2-3 Blue-wings, Canada, No. Waterthrush Magnolia, etc. etc. in several feeding flocks but we only tallied 5 species, alas! Best was a Blackburnian; again big numbers of Chestnut-sideds. We all heard a distance Yellow-billed Cuckoo calling, first of the season there. There was a early diurnal movement of migrants -- chiefly Robins with some Jays, Flickers and also, a notable increase in Catbirds -- as well as a few Orioles (Mike and company saw an Orchard, not common here). Activity died pretty quickly at about 8:45...
Gail Mackiernan and Barry Cooper
Colesville, MD
Highlights:
Green Heron 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 2
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1 heard only
Chimney Swift 10
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 6
Belted Kingfisher 1
Northern Flicker 10
Eastern Wood-Pewee 8
Empidonax sp. 2
Warbling Vireo 1
Philadelphia Vireo 1 fresh bright fall bird; uniform "lemon creme" underparts, obvious dark line through eye giving "frowning" appearance to face, gray crown; distinctly smaller, proportionately longer-tailed and smaller-headed than Red-eyes (it was with a flock of this species which were feeding in small trees only a little above eye level.)
Red-eyed Vireo 18
Blue Jay 10
House Wren 4
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 8
Eastern Bluebird 2
Wood Thrush 1
American Robin 50 best estimate; large increase since yesterday
Gray Catbird 25
Northern Mockingbird 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
American Redstart 2
Northern Parula 1
Blackburnian Warbler 1
Chestnut-sided Warbler 15 at least, may be undercounted; all HY birds
Eastern Towhee 3
Chipping Sparrow 2
Scarlet Tanager 1
Baltimore Oriole 2
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