All,
While successfully, very successfully I might add, looking for the
(presumed based on pictures of the bird's spread tail) Rufous
Hummingbird that has been frequenting the park for the last couple of
weeks a flock of passerines flew by across the grassy opening from the
feeder. The birds making up the flock were constantly calling, the
group of approximately 15 birds was never silent, and had a call
similar to that of a House Sparrow. I did not hear any other call
notes other than the House Sparrow-esque chirp. The birds were flying
approximately 50 feet off of the ground in a tight group, not a
behavior I have ever observed in House Sparrows (HOSPs).
Unfortunately, I didn't get the group in my binocs before they were
out of sight so I have no field marks to go off of besides the general
size which, from the moderate distance between me and the birds, was
not indicative of either HOSPs or Evening Grosbeaks (EVGR) or any
other potential species. The thing that makes me most believe that
this flock was made up of EVGRs, and not a more common species, is
that ever since I encountered them I have been turning over the
identification in my head as it did not sit well with me calling the
birds HOSP or any other species I have ever come in contact with
before, in fact my first reaction was to listen to the call note of
Red Crossbills, which this group certainly was not. Call it birder
intuition if you will but I am fairly confident that the flock was
made up of this species. The habitat of this park would certainly have
some sort of food/water supply for these migrating birds as it has
hundreds of different species of plants, both native and nonnative,
planted by the Garden Park's staff.
Any comments/opinions are welcome as I have no experience with Evening
Grosbeaks and extremely limited experience with most irruptive winter
finches.
Thank you and touch up on those winter finch call notes!
Nick Newberry
Oakton, Fairfax County
