Hi all --
We had tortured Paul Pisano enough so decided to call it quits -- well, it
was getting windy anyway...
Anyway, as has been posted, we had TWO OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHERS
at Wheaton Park/Brookside Gardens today. There may even have been a
third if Mike Bowen's bird was seen at same time as the other two. The
first we saw at 7:15 as we entered the Shorefield Rd. picnic area lot
(where the carousel and mini-train are) -- at the top of snags of a large
dying oak just to the right as you drive in. We screeched to a halt and
enjoyed the bird -- appeared to be a hatch year based on its rather faint,
streaked "vest" -- showing its prominent white flank patches and called
several times, "Whip! Whip!" The second was on a tall snag in the Visitor
Center parking lot of Brookside Gardens (a traditional spot) -- this a dark
adult bird -- at about 9:20 AM. This confirms our feeling that this park is
one of the best places around to see this species, in part because there
are a LOT of tall dead snags adjacent to large open foraging areas such
as Pine Lake, various fields as well as several parking lots. It is good
for
flycatchers in general, for example today we had 4 other species and a
fifth (Least FC) was seen by another birder.
We also had a good selection of other migrants, as might be expected on
this, the first decent cold front of the fall. Most interesting, besides
the
OSFL was a BREWSTER'S WARBLER -- very similar to the "first fall male"
illustrated in Jon Dunn's Warblers book (Plate 3) -- that is, yellow
underneath, very green back, crown and greenish wings, two pale yellow
wingbars.
A good selection of other migrants (7 warbler species) rounded out the
list:
Birds of interest:
Green Heron - 5
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
Chimney Swift -- 10+
Ruby-throated Hummingbird - 7
OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER - 2
Eastern Wood-pewee - 8
Great Crested Flycatcher - 3
Acadian Flycatcher - 2 (both very fresh plumage)
"Traill's" Flycatcher - 2 (also very fresh plumage, one quite contrasty so
a
possible Alder)
Empid sp. - 2 (not good enough looks to try to ID)
Red-eyed Vireo -- 15
House Wren - 4 (3 were recent fledglings from the late brood)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 10
Eastern Bluebird - 2
Blue-winged Warbler - 1 (typical individual)
BREWSTER'S WARBLER - 1
Chestnut-sided Warbler - 1
Magnolia Warbler - 1
Black-and-White Warbler - 1
American Redstart - 7
Common Yellowthroat - 1
Canada Warbler - 2
Scarlet Tanager - 2
Eastern Towhee - 3
Chipping Sparrow - 15+
Baltimore Oriole - 3
Gail Mackiernan and Barry Coope
Colesville, MD
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