Folks,
I briefly visited a couple of Arlington locations late this morning and found
Roaches Run with a nice number of the common gulls, several Hooded Mergs, and
PB Grebes. The feeders at Fort Smith Park were busy as well with a
Red-breasted Nuthatch frequenting, though no Siskins today. I also searched
for the reported Rufous Hummer at Potomac Overlook yesterday and Friday with no
success. It was apparently seen again late Friday but not Saturday according
to the park personnel. As far as I know it was not photographed.
I suppose I need to clarify my note on the Thrasher. It was not to
specifically encourage the use of recordings with birds. I meant to express
that Thrashers are an example of a species that are probably overlooked very
often in the winter unless they are coaxed out, and I don't think they really
respond to pishing. I didn't really envision a lot of folks running out to
tape up a Thrasher in January to be honest.
As for recordings themselves, where I don't really encourage their use on a
regular basis, if your purpose is to detarmine all species present for a
particular survey, then I would say their limited use is warranted. Of course,
there are locations that prohibit them and many situations where it might
overly stress a bird (breeding season or not) and they should NOT be used. I
would hope that birders would be able to recognize these situations. I used
them in the past but honestly don't now see them as a huge benefit or even
necessary in most instances.
Jay Keller
-----Original Message-----
From: Larry Cartwright <prowarbler@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Dec 2, 2007 12:30 PM
To: Virginia Birding <va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Va-bird] Blue-gray Gnatcatcher at feeder & recordings
A Blue-gray Gnatcatcher showed up at my suet feeder in Annandale, Virginia
(Fairfax County) for a 10 minute period this morning. That was about an hour
ago. The bird has yet to return.
I also worry about the use of recordings. It is probably worse during the
breeding season, but a bird could be put under a lot of stress if it is
subject to repeated recordings at any time of year.
Larry Cartwright
prowarbler@xxxxxxxxxxx
