Message:

[

Previous   Next

]

By Topic:

[

Previous   Next

]

Subject:

Pine and 12 other warblers at Rock Creek Park

From:

David Apgar

Reply-To:

David Apgar

Date:

Mon, 7 May 2007 13:48:00 -0400

Pine warbler are rare in Rock Creek Park.  But it was so cold there this 
morning -- 42 degrees F at 6:40 -- that a pale, possibly first year pine warbler 
must have thought he'd arrived at suitable nesting territory in the 
Appalachians.  He seemed in any event to be checking out real estate above 
the bridle and hiking path from the Horse Center where it leads past the two 
entrances to the Maintenance Yard, and stayed there singing loudly for at 
least half an hour.  The bird showed both spectacles and an eye stripe, pale 
underparts with tinges of yellow undertail and a bit more yellow higher on the 
breast.  No one to my knowledge got a look at the wing pattern, but the song 
was too fast for a palm, the undertail too yellow for a Tennessee, and an 
orange-crowned would have been dizzy in the canopies of the trees this bird 
was investigating (not to mention lost).  A pine it was, as Marge surmised; no 
thanks to me, ready as I was to dismiss the brilliant song for a wren's.

Here's a quick list of just the warblers I saw, heard, or heard about.

Northern parula, maintenance yard (MY)
Black-and-white, MY
Worm-eating, heard repeatedly at MY

Blue-winged, heard at MY
Nashville, ridge at dawn

Blackburnian, heard repeatedly at ridge
Chestnut-sided, heard over path near MY
Yellow-rumped, heavy concentrations, especially at the Nature Center
Black-throated green, MY
Pine, over path near MY
Black-throated blue, heard at MY
Blackpoll, heard on the ridge

Ovenbird, heard near the equitation field (no pipits today, alas, just a dog)

DA