Dear All

Well, rather like Steve Hersey, I very nearly didn't make it out of bed this morning when the 5.30am alarm went off.  My plan to tour the Mall area by bike went adrift late yesterday with a puncture and no repair kit, and I only really had an eye to catching any waders 'downed' by the rain late yesterday on the Reflecting Pool so very nearly didn't bother.  But after five mins of not-going-back-to-sleep a text came from Frank Hawkins to say he was about to board a pelagic trip off Cape Town, so that decided me to slip out of bed.  I was able to creep around the house in the hal light to pack minimally (no camera) and get out of the house whilst everyone else slept.

Having got past the guards early I thought I would try to get down to the Hains Pt Golf Course before the 6am golfists set about their usual morning plans for clearing the turfed area of all avian life. After a few years in DC I am now convinced that bird-flushing is actually the only reason they play golf there and they all retire to the clubhouse for celebratory Bucks Fizz as soon as all disappointed birders head off mid-morning.  But then, of course, I had forgotten about the 5.45am SWAT flush team that gets out there with mowers and dogs n stuff before the golfists, so by the time I headed down the Washington Channel side there was nothing but well-drained and over-fertilised turf to entertain the eye - ah well.  So I repaired to the Maintenance Yard hoping that a thrush or two might have dropped in overnight.  A short tour of the area yielded a nice selection of migrants.  Two White-throated Sparrows and a Yellow-rumped Warbler should really have been somewhere else further north by now and I wondered if the handful of unseen but vocal Blackpolls were on-time overnight arrivals or intinerants from the early arrived groups from two weeks ago.  Who knows.  A Least Flycatcher called unseen in the taller trees, and yes there were two or three Swainson's Thrushes.  Lovely.  Paul Pisano texted me with news from the Reflecting Pool so I completed a circuit of the yard and started to head back to the car quite satisfied that the morning had been worthwhile but paused to take one last look at a green and yellow skulking thing in the low veg before I left - sure to be another Yellowthroat but one glance to make sure it's not a Mourning...

The bird was indeed green and yellow but was incredibly hard to see moving around about 8 inches off the ground in the thick bushy veg along the fenceline by a big pile of logs.  It was on my side of the fence, mercifully, only about 15 feet away and should have been easy to nail down but as I got more glimpses of vibrant 'over-fertilised' green and then shock-yellow unders I began to wonder what the devil I was looking at.  Then the I got sight of the front half of a little finchy head and noticed a yellow base to the lower mandible, and a seeming large dark eye.  The nearest thing my mind could stretch-to was one of those whacky little tropical tanagers.  I struggled to follow its creeping path for what seemed like ages, but in truth was probably less than five minutes at the most, getting more and more frustrated and no nearer to an id. Twice I thought about grabbing the phone but was just worried I'd lose the bird.  Then it elected to fly out of its hiding place, towards and past me and landed in open full view on the fenceline opposite.

It was, for one fond of sublime beauty and to put it politely, quite the most enchanting little bird one could care to see.  To put it more directly, and for those of you conversant with British birding language, it was a full-on 'CMF' (ref. Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book).   The bird was clearly unconcerned by my muffled expletives, standing about 15 feet, and proceeded to work its was along the fenceline fluttering out to lift insects from under leaves, showing front and back beautfully in the soft morning light.  A simple description was a bird of the same size, shape and structure as an Indigo Bunting with a more convex culmen to the bill, bright yellow underparts, strongest on the upper breast but with greenish wash on the pecs, bright green uppers especially bright on the rump, with a bluish/turquoise cast which varied with the light. The upper surface of the exposed primaries had a distinct bluish wash and the lesser coverts a stronger blue tinge too.  The aforementioned black eye had a narrow yellowish eye ring and a very short super in front of the eye but not reaching the green lores.  The base of the lower mand was clean yellow, almost like the gape of a fledgling.   It was a little peach of a bird.

This was the point at which I had a complete crisis of confidence as to its identity.  I had Painted Bunting firmly in mind but found myself thinking "there isn't a rare green form of Indigo Bunting is there?"  Being a British birder and having been steeped in our culture of birder arrogance wrt field guides I have still only just got used to carrying Sibley on birding trips, but even so it stays in the car.  I was trying to decide what to do when the bird decided for me.  I flipped up and flew ten yards and over the fence into the Maintenance Yard - safe and sound there I thought.  So I sprinted the fifty yards back to the car, grabbed the guide, yanked it open on the buntings page and id'd it in two seconds flat.  I reached for my phone and dialed Paul as I jogged back to the yard area - engaged, he was calling me at the time it proved to kindly make sure I knew of the Grasshopper Sparrow at KP mid-week.  I texted him, called Rob Hilton etc etc but elected not to pursue the bird further until someone else was there.  That was, in retrospect, probably a mistake.  By the time Paul was there 15 mins later and we gently worked the area, and then again with Dave Czaplak and Rob Hilton too, there was not a sign of the bird.  True it could have simply been skulking in the same area and may still be there but we worked the area pretty thoroughly and not a sniff of the bunting was had (nor curiously the two White-throated Sparrows).

The supporting cast was not bad though with an Alder Flycatcher seen badly but calling frequently being a nice addition to the day too:

Redstart 10+
Blackpoll 10+
Magnolia 1
Yellowthroat 4
Peewee 2
Least Flycatcher 1
Swainson's Thrush 3
Brown Thrasher 1
Field Sparrow 1

Phil Davis tells me that this is a new bird for DC, which surprised me and I am now writing it up.  One question for those who may know the species well - Sibley say that 1st Yr males and Adult females are similar Nov-Jul.  Does anyone know how you tell them apart?

Here's hoping this bird can be refound.

Best

Gary Allport

gallport at audubon org