Hello Everyone,
Peter Ross and I birded Fort Smith Park in Arlington early yesterday morning in
the intermittent rain to check for early migrants. There was a large mixed
flock of mostly Blue-gray Gnatcatchers (~20) flitting around the trees, among
them a first year male American Redstart and some other birds.
In this flock was a bird that I got a distant look at but could hear clearly
its calls, that I tentatively ID'd as a RCKI based on the eyering, short tail,
behavior, and calls. It was somewhat backlit high in a tree, so my view was
not the best and colors were not easily seen. I am not sure how good of a look
Peter had. Because this bird would be ridiculously early, I discounted it as
possibly a young or broken-tailed gnatcatcher, but after reviewing the calls of
the gnatcatcher, I don't believe they have anything very close to the calls of
the RCKI, so it appears that we saw a very early RCKI yesterday morning.
Interestingly, I also saw a report on Jerseybirds of one yesterday in Newark.
It seems there is something going on this season with early boreal migrants.
Take Care,
Jay Keller,
Arlington
