Today Lynn and I visited two state parks, Shenandoah River ("Andy Guest") in
the morning and Sky Meadows in the afternoon. By birding all day long for the
first time ever, we each got personal records for our junior, junior "big day",
with roughly 70 species.
Highlights / notes:
Shenandoah River SP: Warbling, Red-eyed, Blue-Headed, and Yellow-Throated
Vireos. Enjoyed 3 different YTVI, all singing. Warbling Vireos and Eastern
Kingbirds occupying their nests.
Sky Meadows SP: Dipped on both the recently reported Chat (Bridal trail) and
Bobolinks (at Turner Pond); but, lucked out finding a solitary White-Crowned
Sparrow adult.
And now for today's behavior notes, both from Sky Meadows.
First, at the Red-Headed Woodpecker grove, we found 3 Starlings agitatedly
fluttering around a dead tree with many nest holes. On inspection we found two
black snake heads poking out of one nest hole, and watched a third, larger
black snake slither down to the hole (20 feet above the ground) and enter it,
while the other 2 stayed put.
The Red-Headed WP pair about 20 yards away paid no attention, and the Starlings
continued fluttering for 10 minutes. I have to guess that the victims were the
Starlings.
Second, a new kind of courtship behavior (to me anyway) involving Baltimore
Orioles. We watched a male and female copulate for the typical 1-2 seconds.
And as usual, afterwards she fluffed up her feathers and shook a little.
But the male, instead of just flying off, did an elaborate courtship display.
He jumped back and forth around her, with fanned tail and raised wings. It
came across anthropomorphically as a victory dance. He seemed quite happy
and/or proud of his accomplishment.
Good birding everyone --
Steve Johnson & Lynn Rafferty
Fairfax, Virginia
