Rock Creek Park today -9/18
GAIL@UMDD.UMD.EDU
Fri, 18 Sep 98 15:41:11 EDT
Despite the cloudy night, activity was pretty good at Rock Creek Park, DC,
this morning. There was an early flight of warblers which, however, were
unfortunately hard to ID in the rather dim light (and they *did* have to
pick the highest tree...), so we missed a lot of them. However, birds
continued to drop in and eventually a nice selection was tallied:
Warblers: Black and White (4), Black-throated Blue (10), Black-throated
Green (5), Blue-winged (1), Baybreasted (2), "Baypoll" (2), Canada (1),
Chestnut-sided (4), Golden-winged (1,M), Magnolia (6), Parula (4), Prairie
(1), ORANGE-CROWNED (1), Ovenbird (2), Tennessee (1), Common Yellowthroat
(12), YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT (1, rare at Rock Creek). A Cape May and a
Blackburnian were probably also seen, early and dark, but they "got away"
Empids also put in an appearance: Least Flycatcher (1), Yellow-bellied (1),
Acadian (1) -- all well-seen. Other flycatchers included Eastern Wood-pewee
(6), Great Crested Flycatcher (1).
Vireos: Red-eyed (5), White-eyed (1). Reported by another birder -
Philadelphia (1).
Other spp: Brown Thrasher (4), Swainson's Thrush (1), Wood Thrush (2),
Scarlet Tanager (2), many many Catbirds, Robins, Cedar Waxwings and House
Wrens.
We hoped that the big influx of Yellowthroats might have included a few
Oporornis warblers, but none were seen. We did have YOY Connecticuts on
the 14th and 15th, despite the otherwise slow days.
I might add that I have been surprised by the number of Least and Yellow-
bellied Flycatchers -- whether this is simply because we have been in the
field so much more or whether this is a good Empid year, I am not sure. It
certainly been an excellent opportunity to study the field marks of the
two smaller eastern Empids, esp. separating Y-B from Acadian.
Gail Mackiernan and Barry Cooper
gail@umdd.umd.edu