Last week I posted a note about the Cape May Warbler that had more or
less taken over our hummingbird feeder on Cedar Creek in Shenandoah
County. He stayed around through the 19th, then apparently departed
during the night along with many other migrants. Fortunately, I
needed to take down the feeder the next day before returning to
Arlington and feared that I might have to pry it from his tiny claws,
so was glad we were both spared the trauma. My friend and fellow
birder Doug Norton visited on the 19th in hopes of scoring a lifer
Philadelphia Vireo (which he did!) and brought his nifty digiscoping
apparatus along. He got some great close ups which I've posted on a
new Flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/vanburenbirds.
I spent most of a week at our place and had some generally nice
birding. While not on par with the coastal plain, I ended up with a
total of 73 species, with daily totals ranging from 26 to 42. I made
a roughly 3-hour Area Count (eBird) each morning starting at just
before sunrise to take advantage of the concentration effect of the
first rays on edges during chilly September mornings. Of the 73
species, 13 were warblers, 3 vireos, 3 spotted thrushes, and 4
sparrows. Highlights--in addition to the Cape May of course--included
Philadelphia Vireos on 4 mornings, a Warbling Vireo ( a rarity there),
a Lincoln's Sparrow at the feeders on 5 days, a late Yellow-billed
Cuckoo (Sep 18 and 19; of 271 total records over almost 31 years few
in September and only one in Oct), and our FOS Red-breasted Nuthatch
and Purple Finch. Just to show the stark contrast with the Blue Ridge
hawkwatch sites with their hundreds of Broad-wings, we had exactly one
on Sep 15. Nighthawks showed up a couple of evenings with a high
count of 31 on the 14th. Disappointments included not having a few
more warblers, especially a Connecticut which we have about every 3 or
4 years. But overall, a nice week of birding in mostly lovely weather.
I hope you all had similar good luck--and apparently many of you did
according to your posts.
Dave Davis