Hi all,
Yesterday, 3/16, after a brief stop at Brawner Farm (Manassas Nat BP),
my wife and I walked Conway Robinson. I was hoping for Rusties in the
streams and vernal wet spots. No luck on that.
At Brawner we noted a significant uptick in Chipping Sparrow numbers
from the last time I was there 3 or 4 weeks ago. Eastern Meadowlarks
were singing and I watched two do a display smackdown in a mown field,
standing next to each other and alternately singing and doing little
3' up and down flights.
Notables at Conway Robinson were Pine Warblers, Wood Ducks, and Fox
Sparrows. At the southeast corner of the pine grove I did some pishing
to see what was in the brambles there. One Fox Sparrow after another
popped up (along with many Cardinals and Juncos) until there were 5
visible. Two Pine Warblers also started singing up in the tips of the
Loblolly Pines. Later we flushed 4 Wood Duck from a small spring pond,
while walking along the abandoned railroad bed. Last bird on the way
out was an Eastern Phoebe, who I imagine is wishing at the moment he
had put off this migration thing for another week.
We also had a Winter Wren briefly chipping at us. Which brings me to a
question; I saw a Winter Wren elsewhere about a month ago with yellow
legs. It had been the first sunny day in a while, so maybe all the
colors seemed unusually bright, but anyway this wren seemed a very
crisp dark mahogany color with fairly bright horn-yellow legs in the
sun. At the time I thought maybe it was moving into breeding
coloration, but subsequent research indicated that our (NA) version is
thought not to have an alternate plumage molt and isn't noted for
yellow legs. Just curious if others have seen WIWR with legs notably
on the yellow-ish side.
I'm going to slip in a non-bird question, apologies in advance ... I'm
curious if anyone who birds Fauquier, Clarke and further west can
comment (off list of course) on T-Mobile wireless service.
Cheers,
Russ
