Sep 4 2011 - the patch

Initially pretty quiet on our walk from the rail bridge over the river to Rusty Bridge. We did find a perched hummingbird across the tracks and walking back passed the dog park we happened across a feeding party. Not much variety but 4+ Blackburnian with the redstarts and the vireos more than made up for that!






Cameron Stn, Ben Brenman Park with Chrystal, Alexandria, US-VA
Sep 4, 2011 8:15 AM - 9:30 AM
Protocol: Traveling
0.5 mile(s)
28 species (+1 other taxa)

Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) 4
Green Heron (Butorides virescens) 1
Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca) 1
Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis) 2
Rock Pigeon (Columba livia) 75
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) 30
Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica) 5
Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) 1
Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) 2
Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) 6
Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) 1
Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus) 3
Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) 3
Fish Crow (Corvus ossifragus) 5
crow sp. (Corvus sp. (crow sp.)) 5
Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis) 2
White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) 3
Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea) 1
American Robin (Turdus migratorius) 15
Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis) 15
Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) 15
Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) 12
American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla) 2
Blackburnian Warbler (Setophaga fusca) 4
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) 1
Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) 15
Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula) 6
American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) 2

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

Brisk..

A cool 45* overcast start to the day.
The dawn flock of feral pigeons on the apparently block seems to be no more than 50 now, last year's count were around 200 so we'll have to see how that changes over time.
Robin's are still moving through with spotty juvs still working on their adult plumage.
A double-crested cormorant was the autumn's first. It headed toward the lake where the young female hooded merge had been seen earlier.
At the top if the drop to the river a Hairy woodpecker gave great views - really? Are these SO hard to distinguish from their smaller relative? This was a cracking view though...
In the river bed 5-7 cardinals fed at the riverbed edge and light pishing attracted the day's only warbler, a very dull, presumably young female, yellowthroat.

Interesting birds but no warblers

A bit of a late start might have resulted in the lack of warblers yesterday. Continued movement was clear with several Phoebe. While tracking an aircraft heading out of National we spotted one and then two very high raptors heading east and eventually narrowed I'D down to Broad-winged Hawk, a new site bird. A few minutes later while watching a low military Helicopter flying down and then up river while we we standing in the river bed, a large crow distracted us with some impressive tumbling. Unfortunately it flew off downstream before too long buy we got a good enough look to see that it was a Raven. Interestingly Chrystal thought she had heard a Raven on a recent previous visit. Another good bird was a Lincoln's Sparrow which briefly showed along the rail track near the rusty bridge.

A near miss..

A couple of hours at Ben Brenman Park with Chrystal, we started early, arriving just after dawn.
The cloud formations were dramatic in the early like and a light breeze was gently agitating the leaves - finding warblers was going to be a challenge!
In the area area the picnic shelter near the dog park the were a few warblers, we had good views of 5 different Parulas. One bird was a very pale young bird, looking quite exotic until really good views were had (that is not to say this isnt one of the more exotic species anyway :) ).
There were good numbers of American Robin and Flicker in the bushes and flying over and Blue Jays were making themselves obvious both in the bushes and a small flock of 10 birds flying over.
As we passed over 'Pooh Bridge' a juvenile Night Heron flew over us towards where the rivers join. We elected to go to 'Cardinal Bridge' and immediately found it (black-crowned of course) on a low branch just down stream. We both spent some quality time looking at it through the 'scope with frame filling views. A beautiful, well marked individual with large spots and a subtle different tone to the base of the greater coverts - a slightly more rufous brown contrasting with the sandy brown remaining plumage base color.
Chrystal found a Magnolia Warbler nearby and following it across the stream, it joined two more.
As we were looking upstream, a coopers hawk passed low overhead (we had watched it fly in the other direction earlier). Suddenly it dived into the stream side trees only to appear a second later in hot pursuit of a birf that plunged into the water to avoid becoming breakfast. As the hawk flew away, we watched the Green Heron extracate itself from the stream and find a place to dry off.
Many folks around this morning in pleasantly warm temperatures (70* at dawn!). The usual dog walkers of course most of which are always happy to share their canine charges. A few folks showed an interest and some a good birding knowledge ("was that a Coopers?") including a couple who moved into Cameron Station yesterday after being deployed in Italy.