C c c c cowbirds and an odd heron

38* with chill NNW breeze



No sign of the Beaver this morning but the partial lodge is still under the Green Heron tree although it doesnt look like it has been added to much.



Nearby, a flock 400 or so cowbirds were feeding near the road. They were quite tame allowing fairly close approach before taking off in unison and flying straight over me before wheeling back round.

Cowbirds, just after take off, video grab

From the river bed, looking back towards the Holmes Run 'warterfall' a Great Blue Heron attracted my attention. Seemingly a juvenile moulting/moutled into adult plumage. However, looking more closely, the thigh feathers were whitish. On the folded wing there was just a small area of rufous, not always visible. When I approached the area from above (near the softball field / warbler corner) the bird flushed quickly.

GBH - yucky lighting

Mammal morning

A couple of nice looks at mammals this morning. A beaver seems to have taken up residence in the small end of the lake, beneath the Green Heron tree and was watched going about the business of building a new lodge. Of course how long it will be allowed to stay is another thing but they certainly seem to be persistently returning to the site despite efforts to move them away

As I was pondering the beaver, near the building on the far side of the lake, a Raccoon came bundling out towards the road. It was scared by a passing car , changed direction and headed straight towards me, passing within 10 feet of me before seeking the shelter of the water and the Lake edge. It then swam back to roughly where it started from!

Dull and showery morning (55* though, crazy warm but will cool as the front passes). Avian activity was pretty slow. Few crows today and they seemed to be largely local birds, wandering.
On Pooh bridge, I pished up several sparrows, mainly white-throated. A winter wren joined then and was watched investigating an old new, presumably for hiding insects.

At the feeders today

A male House Finch with a badly diseased right eye at the feeders today.
Busy with Carolina Chickadee, 10 or more Doves But no sighting of the Coopers for several days

Still busy researching and documenting the Dunlin, waiting on a few folks to respond.....

Inactivity and adaption

A dull, misty day led to general inactivity amongst the passerines. The resulting dullness presumably led to the protracted departure from the crow roost with birds dispersing all through my visit with no particular pattern to the species mix.
On the lake there were 19 Hooded Mergansers until they started to depart around 7:40, flying off downstream toward Eisenhower.
Another adaption to the made made environment of the park, the new flood lights on the soccer field have been adopted by Starlings with 120 or so birds at first light. How long before the Coopers discover them?

Rare Wigeon and Dunlin

Odd weekend as far as birding goes. The trip to Mason neck found the ducks WAY over the other side and too distant to pick out a Euro Wigeon (2 are present)

Lots of Dunlin research. -last w/e bird is turning into quite the bird.... Is it an arctica? Or is it a Russian bird as Persson is suggesting? All very interesting... Trying to get some info on arctica moult timing now.

Filled up the feeders buy only a couple of Chickadees and a single house finch today... Bas start to Feedwrwatch.

Flying visit west

Almost no time in a quick 24 hrs in San Diego but the usual Western Gulls around the car hire. As the car was dropped off a pair of Brewers Blackbird flew down expectantly. The male showed a nice pale iris, the female a dark eye.

The rest....and the absentees

The Rest

A nice Hermit Thrush jumped on a sparrow we were studying (White-throated as it turned out)

The Dunlin still look extraordinarily long billed to my UK eyes. The one exception being a bird that retained a significant amount of black on its belly

This from Sibley :

Greenland breeding populations (recorded several times on Atlantic coast) are smaller and shorter-billed than American, drabber in breeding plumage, and paler-breasted and grayer in nonbreeding; they molt during or after fall migration

article on arctica Dunlin

Dunlin with black belly with Sanderling and Snow Geese

Small black-legged Calidrids with Dunlin

Also wading around the Geese were Semi-p Plover, Least Sandpiper (all but one in adult type plumage), and a few small black legged peeps that should be Western Sandpipers











The Absentees

There were :

Only 3 Laughing Gulls all weekend, the Ring-bills got all the bread!

Only 1 Snowy Egret and no Tricolors, both often very numerous a little earlier

There was no mud at low tide, except around the very edges, the tides were very high. At high tide the larger waves were washing over the sand dunes and washing into the (formerly) fresh water of the pool opposite the visitors center

The sea....and eagles...

Often at this time of year we get a decent sea and while this one wasn't as 'good ' as the narrow miss with a hurricane 3 years ago in October, neither was the weather as bad. A breezy, 60 degree weekend but with super high tides and the remnants of a depression offshore somewhere lead to some impressive seas.

impressive sea with gulls - and a black-bellied plover

Unfortunately the wind wants quite right or there just wasnt too much moving. Most of the Scoters and (both) Loons were pretty far out

Talking of Scoter, the easiest one to watch all weekend proved to be the (usually most difficult) White-winged Scoter with a female feeding on both days in Tom's Cove and easily, if a little distantly, watched from the comfort of the balcony outside the visitor center

As the constant reshuffling of the Snow Geese would show, Eagles were around in some numbers. Here are two shots of two that were stationary enough to be photographed,

same sea, no gulls

different eagle apparently eating a teal, tourists prepare to cycle away at speed

A fab weekend

Things I should write about separately
> the sea
> the Scoter
> the geese
> the nuthatches
> the rest ( yrw. Hemit, ducks. Waders )
> Stuff missing from an earlier time (month and year)- Laughing Gull, all but 1 Snowy Egret, Tricolor Heron, mud at low tide!

But until then....

tame Brown-heads

not as tame as this pic makes it look - Ross's

weird looking dude - hybrid

Location: Chincoteague
Observation date: 11/13-14/10
Number of species: 79

Snow Goose - Chen caerulescens X
Snow x Ross's Goose (hybrid) - Chen caerulescens x rossii 1 good looking 'fake' Ross's goose, small in stature, small bill, round head but with all pink bill and grin patch
Ross's Goose - Chen rossii 3
Canada Goose - Branta canadensis 50
Tundra Swan - Cygnus columbianus 16
Gadwall - Anas strepera 30
American Wigeon - Anas americana 50
American Black Duck - Anas rubripes 250
Mallard - Anas platyrhynchos 20
Northern Shoveler - Anas clypeata 40
Northern Pintail - Anas acuta 100
Green-winged Teal - Anas crecca 250
Surf Scoter - Melanitta perspicillata X
White-winged Scoter - Melanitta fusca 1 female feeding in Tom's Cove
Black Scoter - Melanitta nigra 8
Bufflehead - Bucephala albeola 40
Common Merganser - Mergus merganser 1
Red-breasted Merganser - Mergus serrator 1
Ruddy Duck - Oxyura jamaicensis 100
Red-throated Loon - Gavia stellata 30
Common Loon - Gavia immer 50
Horned Grebe - Podiceps auritus 1
Northern Gannet - Morus bassanus 1
Brown Pelican - Pelecanus occidentalis 3
Double-crested Cormorant - Phalacrocorax auritus 100
Great Blue Heron - Ardea herodias 15
Great Egret - Ardea alba 50
Snowy Egret - Egretta thula 5
Little Blue Heron - Egretta caerulea 9
Black-crowned Night-Heron - Nycticorax nycticorax 1
Black Vulture - Coragyps atratus 10
Turkey Vulture - Cathartes aura 20
Bald Eagle - Haliaeetus leucocephalus 6
Northern Harrier - Circus cyaneus 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk - Accipiter striatus 3
Cooper's Hawk - Accipiter cooperii 2
Clapper Rail - Rallus longirostris 1
American Coot - Fulica americana 3
Black-bellied Plover - Pluvialis squatarola 2
Semipalmated Plover - Charadrius semipalmatus 2
Solitary Sandpiper - Tringa solitaria 3
Greater Yellowlegs - Tringa melanoleuca 3
Willet (Western) - Tringa semipalmata inornata 30
Lesser Yellowlegs - Tringa flavipes 1
Marbled Godwit - Limosa fedoa 15
Sanderling - Calidris alba 35
Western Sandpiper - Calidris mauri 2
Least Sandpiper - Calidris minutilla 4
Dunlin - Calidris alpina 10
Long-billed Dowitcher - Limnodromus scolopaceus 11
Bonaparte's Gull - Chroicocephalus philadelphia 1
Laughing Gull - Leucophaeus atricilla 3
Ring-billed Gull - Larus delawarensis 75
Herring Gull (American) - Larus argentatus smithsonianus 40
Great Black-backed Gull - Larus marinus 25
Forster's Tern - Sterna forsteri 1
Royal Tern - Thalasseus maximus 100
Belted Kingfisher - Megaceryle alcyon 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - Melanerpes carolinus 1
Downy Woodpecker - Picoides pubescens 4
Northern Flicker - Colaptes auratus 1
Carolina Chickadee - Poecile carolinensis 5
Red-breasted Nuthatch - Sitta canadensis 6
Brown-headed Nuthatch - Sitta pusilla 11 including 4 drinking from puddle behind our car
Carolina Wren - Thryothorus ludovicianus 1
Hermit Thrush - Catharus guttatus 1
Northern Mockingbird - Mimus polyglottos 1
European Starling - Sturnus vulgaris X
Yellow-rumped Warbler - Dendroica coronata X 'everywhere'
Palm Warbler - Dendroica palmarum 2
Savannah Sparrow - Passerculus sandwichensis 4
Song Sparrow - Melospiza melodia 30
Swamp Sparrow - Melospiza georgiana 5
White-throated Sparrow - Zonotrichia albicollis 1
Northern Cardinal - Cardinalis cardinalis 4
Red-winged Blackbird - Agelaius phoeniceus 50
Boat-tailed Grackle - Quiscalus major 15
House Finch - Carpodacus mexicanus 50
American Goldfinch - Spinus tristis 1
House Sparrow - Passer domesticus 1

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Accipiter morning

A Cooper's sitting in One of the ornamental trees in Van Dorn Street metro parking lot was unexpected. A Sharpie over the beltway at the Robinson Terminal showed typically 'no neck', small stature and snappy wing beats (yes there was congestion...surprise!)

HF with bad eyes

Plenty of chickadee activity at the feeders today and the numbers of House Finch remain higher than last year. A few birds are showing the eye disease. Per Project Feederwatch


"House Finches (and to a lesser extent American Goldfinches and other species) are susceptible to House Finch disease or "mycoplasmal conjunctivitis." See the House Finch Disease Survey web site to learn more about the disease and how to diagnose it. If during a count day, you see a House Finch or an American Goldfinch that appears to have House Finch eye disease, please report the number of sick birds you see in the box provided on your checklist.
Unlike FeederWatch, the House Finch disease survey collects data on a daily basis. You may report any healthy OR sick finches that you see on NON-COUNT days by using the House Finch Disease Survey form on the House Finch Disease web site."

.

Attracting birds to feeders, aka illustrating the foodchain

The new feeder model seems to be settling in and accepted. There are often 4-5 goldfinches between the two feeders and the new one being well used. A dove has learnt to feed from it if it is left too close to the railing. One Goldfinch is particularly recognizable with several white feathers on crown.
Still impressive numbers of house finches coming to feed with 4-6 often around. The sparrow mafia frequently rolls in with up to
18 birds. One female house finch was defending her feeding patch aggressive from the sparrows with some success today. The female Sparrow with white middle left tertial remains a frequent visitor.
There are more Carolina Chickadees than I remember last winter, , often three at once with four just now. A Carolina Wren and WB Nuthatch also visited today
All this activity is, I am sure, encouraging the almost daily visit from a Cooper's. Today again an adult (female?) visited; spooked everything by arriving from the left today. It rested for a few seconds and then returned in a minute or so to sit, less conspicuously, in the tree for a bit.

The other 7am

First time since the tine change and of course I'm now an hour behind everything. A pleasant calm day probably resulted in successful early feeding and relatively slow birding by the time I arrived.
Nothing on the pond but 2 female-type Hooded Merganser upstream from cardinal bridge.
On the slope down to the riverbed I watched a red fox settle down to sleep in the sun but that meant that my Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Yellow-rump moved up the hill




Near the dog park a small group of sparrows included a chipping sparrow which was much less co-operative than this Junco, the former hiding away at the top of a tree while I tried to turn it into something more exotic with no luck...

Wren taxonomy

Here's the scooby on the Winter Wren complex taxonomy per IOC

ENGLISH NAME UPDATES - IOC Version 2.5 (July 4, 2010)

Eurasian Wren Troglodytes troglodytes
(Change English name to Eurasian Wren follows split of North American "Winter Wrens"'; BOU choice?)

Winter Wren

Troglodytes troglodytes

Eurasian Wren

Follows split of NA Troglodytes spp

ENGLISH NAME UPDATES - IOC Version 2.6 (Oct 23, 2010)

Winter Wren Troglodytes hiemalis

	Eastern Winter Wren	Troglodytes hiemalis	Winter Wren	Follow NACC reversal to simpler traditional name, IOC's original recommendation

Pacific Wren Troglodytes pacificus

Western Winter Wren	Troglodytes pacificus	Pacific Wren	Follow NACC reversal to simpler new name, IOC's original recommendation

Occoquan 11/07/10

A decidedly chilly start to Sunday morning found Chrystal and I at Occoquan NWR for a local Audubon walk led by Rich Reiger and helped by Kurt Gasklil.



While we waited for the group to assemble, we saw the only Waxwings of the day, a flock of 30+ birds over towards the Ringing station. By the time we got around there, they were nowhere to be seen however. Good numbers of bluebirds were around, maybe a flock of 40 to start with and several others around the reserve. Also in good numbers, Kinglets, and unusually Golden-crowed out numbered Ruby-crowns, with maybe15 of the former and 4-5 of the latter seen during the morning



Out in the bay huge flocks of Gadwall and Coot predominated - maybe a 1000 of the duck (including later flyover flocks of a couple of hundred) and 600 Coot. Pied-billed Grebe were plentiful with maybe 30 seen, undoubtedly there were more.

In one of the streams leading down to the bay a fine Rusty Blackbird was feeding less than 30 feet away, a excellent look at a species that is often hard to see this well.







A couple of Palm Warbler were found along the 'shore' but no sign of the Orange-crowned Warbler photographed by another birder coming up from the point.

Palm and Fish

Pre-Dawn, the crows were flying away from
roost in dispersed flocks. All the larger groups seemed to be almost exclusively Fish Crow with American crows in ones and twos.
On the lake 5 and then later 6 Hooded Merganser Inc 2 males where less active than the other morning - perhaps they display actively when they first arrive on site?
Passerines were pretty quiet until I found a small party in tree along the rail-track just past the Magic Spot. A skulking, but ultimately well seen, yellow Palm Warbler was in a small group of ruby-crowned kinglets and a yellow-rumped warbler. The warblers flew over to the stream-side trees, leaving the Kinglets.

New visitors

A new, noticeably marked Male house sparrow with white left wing primary and right wing secondary was feeding this afternoon. I wonder how many new birds arrive unnoticed.

Pine siskin :)




Not all together unexpwcted considering there are a lot around right, nwver the less a welcome visitor to the nyger feeders from late afternoon pretty easy to pick out :
Colder darker brown
Much smaller than house finch
Crisper clear wing bar and tertial/ secondary edging and all together more contrasting
Very suble greenish edges to primary edges up towards the coverts
Very thin and subtle supercilium behind eye
Pale border to dark ear coverts and 'face'
Fine black bill


The new feeder seems to be bedding in. Not on was it visited by this bird, it had a max of 5 goldfinch today. Also several House Finch and the occasional Sparrow :(.

(In)activity at the feeders

The new Nyger feeder seems to taking time o adjust to with only a Goldfinch and a House Finch seen so far. The old feeder is much more frequently used.

We seem to have a couple of female House Finch with the eye disease. One female has a fully closed eye and another has some disturbed feathering and a swollen partially closed eye (both right eyes I think from memory).

Brrrrrr....

In the lake seven Hooded Merganser were found in the light mist over the lake at dawn. As the sun came up 2 of the 3 males were displaying frantically to 1 or 2 of the females. No sign or the grebe or Bufflehead of a couple if days ago.



Only a light crow passage from roost this Mir ing despite being early. Most looked like fish crows and the majority that called were. Later I found a party sitting in trees above the riverbed, one looked bigger and there were certainly odd American Crow still.

A few flocks of 20-25 Robin flew over high and smaller parties were in the trees around the picnic area.

Slow day, mad day

As shown, sometimes even the sparrow and finch chaos subsides and the feeder becomes a perch.

30 mins or so later, Doves, sparrow, finches and Cardinals EXPLODE in all directions as an adult Coopers pays a visit to it's feeding station. This bird was a little smaller than the juvenile that visited the other day but nicely barred rufous.

Twitching Alexandria

Checking the Birdseye iPhone app on Saturday we saw that a nearby park had Red-breasted Nuthatch reported. Neither of us knew of Chinquapin Park but on Sunday we found it just behind TC Williams HS. It was towards midday so very quiet but the stream looks a great area for migrants in the Spring (if it has water!) . The other side of the park, we found some Pines and after a little playing of Nuthatch "Toot"s soon has at least three birds calling, seeing two birds easily. Probaly female or young birds, they were pale orange underparts. They were reluctant to come down out of the Pines, feeding actively.

Returning to the car we heard one nearby (possibly one of the three) and another maybe 1/4 mile away.

The first frost

A frosty morning at the park for the first time this season and, perhaps not surprisingly all the bees have moved from the still flowering plants.



Oddly no Mallard or Geese were seen to day and the long staying Hooded Merganser seems to have a new companion in the shape of an eclipse or young male Bufflehead. I judged to be a young/eclipse male by the white breast and grey side although it had a full female type head.







Down at the riverbed a pair of Killdeer were flushed and flew off towards Pooh Bridge. A male Belted Kingfisher noisily fed around the area where the two streams join. The weedy area contained a lot of birds, mostly Goldfinch but also Yellow-Rumps, Ruby-crowned Kinglet and the first of two Phoebe



Just past the Magic Spot a juvenile Sapsucker was watched. The black pectoral band becoming well developed but no red is showing on the head yet.