Wood stork update and lark sparrow
BlkVulture@aol.com
Sat, 29 Aug 1998 18:32:21 EDT
On Saturday, 29 Aug 98, myself, Kurt Gaskill, and Mike Day were at Point
Lookout State Park from 0700 until 1200.
Conditions: temps started around 70F or so, and reached about 93F. Wind was
southerly, 5-10mph in the early hours, diminishing late morning. Sky was
clear, zero precipitation.
Report: The immature wood stork was still present at 1200. It was seen in
many parts of the pool at the end of the point. At 1200, it was seen on the
southern edge, along with a pair of mute swans, an immature snowy egret
(determined by the yellow lores), a spotted sandpiper and several green
herons.
Also seen near the parking spaces that are south of the pool was a lark
sparrow. It was in view for about four minutes, affording conclusive looks.
The bird was associating with a female blue grosbeak. It followed her
everywhere. The bird started out in a tree in the strip between the parking
spaces and the river. It then followed the grosbeak to a sandy area under a
brown sign that has rules of the park on it. This was the best look at the
bird. It stayed on the ground for about a minute, and gave us a complete look
from about 30 feet away, and Kurt and I had it in our scopes. The two birds
then flew to a wire across the street, paused for a bit, then conntinued on to
trees behind the bathroom. We tried to reacquire the bird, but were unable
to. It seemed unlikely that the bird left the point, but we never saw it
again.
Some interesting field marks on the bird were noted. First, the chestnut
areas of the head were brown instead of chestnut. The central dot on the
breast was more like one prominent smudge, and 2 or 3 other less defined
smudges surrounding it. There was also a buffiness to the flanks. However,
the white outer-tail feathers were quite prominent, and other than the
previous remarks, the bird looked like an adult; there was no streaking on
the breast. We concluded from Mr. Riesing's (sorry if I misspelled) book when
we got home that the bird was somewhere between juvinile and first winter. I
would be interested if anyone has seen this species looking similar to my
description.
Other notable sightings from Point Lookout: About (20) Kestrels were seen
throughout the morning, headed south, and not stopping at the end of the
point. There were a couple of loose flocks of 5 or so birds. (2) lesser
yellowlegs. (2) Caspian, (9) Royal, (1) Sandwich, (300+) Forster's, (2) Black
Terns. There were many laughing gulls, as well as herring, great black-
backed, and ring-billeds.
(8) Ruby-throated hummingbirds, (2) bank swallows, (6) brown thrashers, (2)
red-eyed vireos, (1) white-eyed vireo, (1) pine warbler, (1) palm warbler
(early I thought), (2) redstarts, (1) common yellowthroat, (1) chat.
Also (14) blue grosbeaks, and (6) Baltimore orioles.
Anyone interested in more infromation about any of these sightings, feel free
to contact me here.
Cheers,
Todd Day
Jeffersonton, VA