October 12, 2005 [LINK]

First Yellow-rumped warblers

It was a dark and gloomy morning, not encouraging for bird watching, but I needed the exercise. Before I even got out of the parking lot on my morning stroll, however, I heard an oddly familiar "chip, chip" call in the trees, and within a couple minutes some Yellow-rumped warblers popped into view, the first ones of the season for me. It was virtually the same arrival date as in the past two years, amazingly consistent. They are the only warblers found in most of Virginia during the winter months, and happened to be in my former neighbor YuLee Larner's back yard, probably wondering where YuLee was... Today's highlights from the (recent) birding "hot spot" behind the Staunton-Augusta Rescue Squad:

• Yellow-rumped warblers (M, F/J)
• Common yellowthroat (young male; close, but no camera!)
• Red-winged blackbirds (high)
• Red-bellied woodpecker (F)
• Hairy woodpecker (F)
• Downy woodpecker (M)
• Catbirds (a few still lingering)
• Wood thrush (latest date: Oct. 12!)
• Phoebe
• Goldfinches
• Rose-breasted grosbeak (young male; latest date: Oct. 13!)
• Cedar waxwings (10+)
• Yellow-bellied sapsucker (M)

Note that the latest date two of these species have ever been seen in Augusta County are October 12 and 13, according to Birds of Augusta County, which YuLee edited. (A grosbeak was once seen in mid-November, but that was probably a sick or lost vagrant.) I saw some Chimney swifts flying around yesterday, but none today. If their migration timing of past years is any guide, those were probably the last ones of the year.