Dear All

I am not sure how many of you use the excellent www.Woodcreeper.com<http://www.woodcreeper.com/> website to monitor bird movements but it certainly came up trumps for me last night and this morning.  David LaPuma's birding forecasts are pretty much spot on for NJ and for the region more widely but need a bit more honing down to fit into the DC scene, naturally, so I have been teaching myself how to use the  RAP real time weather gadget at http://www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/radar/  .  It's a bit unfriendly but the results are amazing.  Having seen David's forecast and then signs of birds moving on the regular NEXRAD last night I took a look on the RAP.  It was quite the most amazing lift off at about 9pm last night.  I hope this will work - try looking at this URL, give it a few moments to load and you'll see what I mean:

http://www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/radar/displayRad.php?icao=KLWX&prod=vel1&bkgr=gray&endDate=20081031&endTime=0&duration=4

This is the four hour period from 8pm to midnight last night for the radar based at Dulles airport.  Blue soundings are moving towards and red/orange away from the radar.  There was no rain last night nor enough wind to lift leaves so all those soundings are birds - amazing eh!  Based on this I went outside for ten minute cuppa tea at about 9.30pm and heard various chips and weeps, plus a small group of Killdeers going over and decided then to make an extra effort to get out to Rock Creek for dawn this morning.  Checking the radar before I left at about 7am I was pleased to see the movement was still on and by 7.15 I was standing by the stables with many little tiny dot-type birds very high overhead.  It was amazing to just look straight up with the binocs and see birds passing over lit up by the pre-dawn sun.  All sorts of tiny passerine-type things going over in droves, unidentifiable and practicably uncountable.  Then as the dawn lifted and the first light hit the tree tops birds came tumbling out of the sky.  At first I tried to count the robins and juncos but then got side-tracked by the first of three groups of Pine Siskins (total about 20 birds) and then a run on Purple Finches in bunches of 5-15 birds.

At about 7.20am Wallace turned up but, to my surprise, was unable to see most of the birds.  I'm sure I shouldn't really impart such news but I was unaware that our 'keeper of the yard', who rigorously notes all birds seen and posts assiduously and daily, has developed cataracts and is not currently able to see little whizzing dots flinging themselves overhead.  He says he will have an operation shortly to get one of them done - I am sure all RCP regulars join me in wishing him a successful operation and a speedy recovery.

So Wallace headed down to the yard but I stayed on top of the hill until 8am when the constant passage started to subside.  By that time three groups of Robins and two of Waxwings had 'rained' down into one of the Holly bushes by the stables in front of me.  They quickly set about fighting with each other (whilst ignoring two berry-laden but otherwise empty trees adjacent) and the chuckling, and weeping attracted a group of Purple Finches down and then some warblers, a dozen Yellow-rumps and about five Palms which hopped about on the roofs of the stables.  Three Flickers and two sapsuckers sat up on one of the snags in the orange morning sun just warming themselves.  It was a real spectacle.

I then made my way down to the yard.  Since I only had about 20 minutes left I actually ran through the woods and arrived, puffing, to find Wallace having done his graceful tour and received his full report on grounded birds.   We then stood, me watching, him listening, as the visible migration leapt back into action.  One group of overflying Purple Finches were so low and so brightly lit that Wallace said 'I can see those'.  A Red-breasted Nuthatch called unseen in the woods, a female Purple Finch hopped around close-by, groups of Juncos filed past us and a Brown Creeper worked the branches of a leafless tree by 'the vine'.  And then at 8.25 the witching hour arrived and I turned into a pumpkin; fitting on All Hallows morn.

Jogging back to the car I bumped into two Hermit Thrushes, choosing to fight it out with the robin throng, and a madly beeping Red-breasted Nuthatch buzzed around the stables (like the one on the Ridge a few weeks ago).   Wishing that the rest of world would just go away for an hour or two, I headed home.  Whilst sipping my morning cuppa on the back deck of the house 15 minutes later yet another group of Purple Finches headed over and I dutifully added Carpodacus purpureus to the garden list; and toasted them on their way with a raise of the mug and a dunk of a chocolate biscuit.

So, three cheers for David LaPuma I say!

Have a good weekend's birding all.

Gary




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Gary Allport



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