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Subject:

3 blackbird species, Jug Bay

From:

Jeff Shenot

Reply-To:

Jeff Shenot

Date:

Fri, 9 Nov 2007 16:15:58 -0500

On Wednesday at about 4 pm I saw 3 blackbird species behind my house (Jug 
Bay area, PG County): Red-winged; my first Rusty of the Fall; and a male 
BREWERS!  I often don’t look carefully at the blackbirds around here, since we 
get so many during migration and greater than 99% are Red-wingeds.  I was 
looking carefully at the Rustys however, since there were so many (!) and I 
wanted to get an accurate count.  They were perching in one bare tree and 
several bare shrub tops along the river, and would fly down to the ground to 
forage or drink briefly (I couldn’t actually see what they were doing, but I 
assumed this), then come back up to perch again.  After 3 tries, the most I 
could see perched at one time was 31, but there were always some on the 
ground that were out of sight.  I don’t recall, but think my previous high count 
here was in the 20s.  They associated loosely; although they used the same 
trees and shrubs, they never bunched up in one flock (so to speak).  While I 
watched, occasional (loose) Red-wingeds joined and left them, but on two 
occasions there were big flocks (~150-200 birds).  The flocks came in but 
stayed only very briefly and left.  Both times as a big flock left, the Rustys 
remained.  Many were calling.

During my third count, I came on a beautiful adult male that I obviously had 
not seen yet.  When I saw it my first impression was male Common grackle, 
but I realized immediately it was not a grackle!  It remained perched without 
moving around for several minutes, and occasionally it was perched next to 
both male and female Rustys.  This allowed easy comparison with my scope (~ 
225-250 feet away), and it had a noticeably larger bill when Rustys were 
perched next to it.  The Brewer's purple head and dark greenish back and 
sides were very iridescent and beautiful.  It’s tail seemed slightly longer too, 
but was obviously flat and identical in shape.  After a few minutes, it flew out 
of sight with the others and did not reappear.  No telling if they may hang 
around; if I see it again I'll post it.  I have seen them out west, but this was 
my first eastern one!

Cheers-
Jeff Shenot