Hello Birders,
Today 16 September, Lynn and I spent an hour slogging through heavy weeds at
Sully Woodlands. Few birds and only one migrator: a Kestrel, perched near the
SW corner of the meadows. We also saw at least 2 first-summer Indigo Buntings
still hanging around.
In our yard (south of Reston) over the weekend we've had 5 common warbler
species and several Red-eyed Vireos. The warblers were Redstart,
Black-throated Blue, Black-and-white, Parula, and Ovenbird.
The Ovenbird reminded us (the very, very hard way) that it's time to put up our
outside window screens. Fortunately it recovered from its impact and flew off,
after about an hour. We hang strips of ordinary window screen from the eaves,
over our front and back windows, about a foot away from the window. We've
tried many things over the years to avoid birds hitting our windows during
migration, and this is the only thing that has worked for us.
To remind us that breeding season ends very late for a few species, we've also
been watching a pair of freshly-fledged Cardinals begging from their parents.
Good birding,
Steve Johnson and Lynn Rafferty
