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
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