Since my last post there have been several notable bird sightings in DC, as well as the continued advance of expected spring migrants. Fellow birders this week turned up vesper sparrows, a clay-colored sparrow, surf scoters, and (most notably of all) both an American white pelican and brown pelican recorded on the same day! While I was able to catch the vesper sparrows at Anacostia Park and the clay-colored sparrow near the Capitol reflecting pool, unfortunately the scoters and pelicans did not stick around. Small numbers of surf scoters are expected to pass through DC every year, so those turning up was not a huge surprise, but the pelicans WERE a big surprise. Pelicans are not unprecedented but are very seldom observed in DC, so these were exciting finds.
For my part, this weekend produced a personal high-count observation of blue-winged teal at Kenilworth Park (29 birds!), as well as FOY chimney swift, bank swallow, blue-gray gnatcatcher, Eastern meadowlark, palm warbler, and purple finch. I also made a trip to Rock Creek Park on Sunday to track down my FOY Louisiana waterthrush, which I first encountered singing along Rock Creek south of the Rapids Bridge area, and later came across again chipping high in the canopy near a small tributary stream adjacent to the Rock Creek Park maintenance yard. The resonance of the Louisiana waterthrush vocalizations is incredible–even its chipping call seemed to carry deep into the woods and had no problem overtaking the sound of running water.
On Tuesday, Janet and I are headed to Norway, so there likely won’t be any new posts this week. The weather is supposed to turn more favorable for migration in the DC region over the next few days, so I expect a whole new host of birds will be around when we return. We are going to be doing a bit of birding in the Oslo area, so as long as the weather cooperates I hope to have several new life birds and some photos and stories to share from our Scandinavia wanderings. For now, I’ll leave you with a few images from the past week.
