At about 12:45 I observed a smallish bird fly in towards the tower and
almost land on the plywood floor atop scaffolding that is place for some
window work being performed. Someone was walking past the window at the
time and I think that caused the bird to fly off before landing. It flew
and glided down and away from me to the east, briefly landing on the roof
of the D pier before flying off again and disappearing against the
background as it became too small to follow any longer.
The bird immediately caught my eye because it had a generally clean buffy
color on it's undersides that was a little more intense on the chest that
didn't register with anything else. At first I thought it was going to be a
bluebird because of its size and shape. As it flew away from me I
immediately noticed the extensive white rump and inner edges of the outer
tail feathers and the black of the central retrices that joined the outer
half of all of the tail feathers in T pattern similar to a McCown's
Longspur. The back and head was a light grayish-brown color and the wings
appeared to be a bit darker as it flew and when it landed. On the roof it
was too far away to see clearly, even through our 7X binoculars, but there
was a distinct pattern to the head that showed light and dark areas in the
face.
I concluded this to be a Northern Wheatear as I can think of no other
species with this pattern. This was a life bird.
The sky was overcast which provided for even lighting. Winds were light out
of the east.
Ed Boyd
Cestnut Hill Cove, MD
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