Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000 13:19:59 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Gail Mackiernan Subject: Rock Creek today (9/29) Comments: To: Voice@capacess.org Hi all -- Again, a pretty good morning at Rock Creek Park, DC, although also somewhat frustrating, as I will explain below. There was an very early dawn flight of warblers into the walnut tree, dominated by BT-Blues, then a lull until the sun rose a bit more, then flocks into the sunlit (and warm) trees across the road. We were enjoying the active flitting birds, and had identified a number of nice Bay-breasteds and Blackpolls, showing their field marks, as well as other species. Things then started to happen all at once: Barry got onto a deep yellow (mustardy) tanager at the same time that Bill Dobbins and I saw a probable Philly vireo and we were all *just* about to clinch those important field marks when a Sharpshin Hawk flew along the tree line and all the little birds vanished. Completely. One second they were there, then all hell broke loose, and when the dust settled, only a few Chickadees and Titmice were in the trees. Bye-bye, possible Summer Tanager, adios probable Philadelphia Vireo. We waited a while and finally decided that that was the show. On to the Dog Run (Military Field) and the Maintenance Yard for mop-up. Before I give our counts, I wanted to add to yesterday -- not seen by us, btw -- an immature Connecticut Warbler in the Dog Run as well as a Bluewing. Okay, today diversity was still pretty good but numbers down, as we expected so long after the frontal passage. We had our first Blue-headed Vireo for the autumn, and about 15 species of warbler: Black-throated Blue (20), Magnolia (18), Black-and-White (8), Blackburnian (1), Baybreasted (5), Blackpoll (4), Chestnut-sided (3), [Bluewinged (1), not seen my us], Nashville (1), Ovenbird (2), Parula (2), Redstart (5), Black-throated Green (12), Common Yellowthroat (15), [Tennessee(1), not seen by us]. Other migrants included: Red-eyed Vireo (12), Scarlet Tanager (5), Tanager sp. 1, Rose-breasted Grosbeak (4), Swainson's Thrush (3), Wood Thrush (1), Gray-cheeked Thrush (2), Golden-crowned Kinglet (1), Ruby-crowned Kinglet (2), Cedar Waxwing (~50), Swamp Sparrow (1), White-throated Sparrow (5), Chipping Sparrow (1), Winter Wren (1),[ Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (1)], Flicker (30), Brown Thrasher (8), Osprey (1), high-flying Canada Geese (true wild birds?) -- ca. 35, Phoebe (10), Pewee (2), Least Flycatcher (1), Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (1). Conspicuous in their absence have been Palm Warblers, Cuckoos, and Orioles. Also, although I am not complaining, Yellow-rumps! Unfortunately I will miss this weekend, due to dog shows. Hope it is a good one (but not too good, ya know what I mean!) Cheers, Gail Mackiernan ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================