No sightings this morning. My guess is it was actively migrating yesterday
and I was lucky to be in the right place at right time.
Ed Boyd
On Oct 8, 2012 1:35 PM, "Edward Boyd" <edboyd59...> wrote:
> 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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