Va storm (bird) chasers,
WOW, I had an awesome late morning at Burke Lake that started off kind of slow
but quickly got better after a Bald Eagle flew out of a tree right above our
heads (me and my parents) and I saw my first, and long overdue, county Spotted
Sandpiper. And hey, who could complain with a mixed up (flying south to north)
Peregrine Falcon. The find of my day and maybe my young birding career was
when a dark bird flew in over the trees over my head and the instant I saw this
bird I knew I had never seen it before and then when I saw those two barn
swallow like feathers coming out of the middle of the bird's tail I knew I was
looking a Jaeger (probably a Parasitic). See details in the eBird list below!
Keep your eyes peeled, you never know when a Frigatebird will flyover your
head...
Enjoy migration,
Nick Newberry
Oakton, Fairfax
Burke Lake Park - CBR05, Fairfax, US-VA
Aug 28, 2011 10:00 AM - 11:45 AM
Protocol: Traveling
0.6 mile(s)
Comments: Hurricane Irene passed last night and early this morning.
With mom and dad
20 species
Canada Goose 1
Wood Duck 7
Mallard 4
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Black Vulture 1
Turkey Vulture 4
Osprey 1
Bald Eagle 2 Imm. was prob a 4th year bird (head was a little splotchy)
Peregrine Falcon 1 Going south to north... odd migrant.
Shape was defiantly falcon like with fairly long thin wings
Bird was way too powerful to be a Kestrel and too large and powerful to be a
Merlin
Never actually got very close but view for a long period of time (about three
minutes)
Bird appeared all dark in the not so great light.
Wings did not surpass the base of the tail.
Only silhouette was observed.
I have seen this specie quite a few times in varied conditions.
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Herring Gull 1
Parasitic Jaeger 1 Flight pattern: Relatively fast and regular wing
beats;
rounded scapular area (kind of like a little hill in the wing when look at
flying away and from the side; scapular
area seemingly didn't move much but wing tips flapped deeply; flapped with out
gliding; flew straight without any dips or rises (like a woodpecker or
goldfinch would do);
Shape: fairly compact; wings were wide; width of wings stayed consistent until
the tips; wings were bent at the wrist but this bend was not very pronounced;
tail was
very rounded and short; edges of the tail angled inward towards the body
Size: American Crow (more or less but much more compact)
Behavior: flew in fast low over the tree line from the north (with the wind at
its back) right over our heads (this is when the central tail feathers were
noticed) then dipped below
tree line to fly over the lake (about 20 feet above the lake); then once in the
middle of the lake bird started to rise again and then once over the tree line
on the south side of the lake the bird rose a couple hundred feet above the
trees aided by the strong wind and banked revealing the very rounded tail then
continued out of sight; when
bird was in flight we had a fairly direct view of the underparts for about a
second or two with the naked eye and then the bird flew down and then this
angle
was lost; the next angle we had was of the bird's side about 50 feet in the air
(100+ feet away and flying away),
next we had an angle on the back of the bird and this angle persisted until the
bird was up way above tree-line about half a mile away and banked revealing the
tail but at this point the central tail feathers were no longer visual with our
optics (too far away); we watched until the bird was out of sight maybe 1 to
1.5
miles away to the south.
Coloring: All dark (no color or white was seen but this could be explained by
the bad lighting that was present and possibly by the angles that we had but
more likely the lighting or that this was a dark morph bird)
Other field marks: Two forked tail feathers came out of the middle of the tail
and
resembled those of a Barn Swallow in length and their shape (very pointy); bill
was not noted; feet nor legs were not noticed (in any case they did not surpass
the length of the tail)
Environment: Morning after the passage of Hurricane Irene; the wind was coming
from the north strong and gusty; sky was overcast and very bright with some
blue patches; warm (upper 70(f)s); half an hour later the wind shifted to the
northeast
Other: I have never seen a bird look or fly like this before; I have no
experience with Jaegers or any other bird that looked or acted like the bird
that I saw; total time that the bird was in sight (doesn't mean we could see it
WELL) was about one minute.
Optics: 8x42 REI waterproof Binocs (Nicholas Newberry) and Bushnell Explorer
10x42s Binocs (mom had them during the sighting)
Observers: Nicholas Newberry, Carine Newberry (mom), Tucker Newberry (dad)
Chimney Swift 10
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 3
Tree Swallow 2
Carolina Chickadee 2
Tufted Titmouse 2
Common Grackle 8 Fly overs
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2 (http://ebird.org)
