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Scarlet Tanager invasion!



Hi again,

After nearly 14 hours' worth of NAMC, followed by the Junior Brown 
concert Saturday night, I couldn't get up early enough for serious 
birding this morning (I'm not sure if Frank has woken up yet!). I did 
visit a friend in the late morning and early afternoon; he just moved 
into a house on Pickett Road with 40 acres of land behind it. Birds were 
surprisingly scarce, so we spent most of the day observing caterpillars, 
butterflies, odonates, plants, and ridiculously large mosquitoes. 
However, we did turn up a Magnolia Warbler and a Scarlet Tanager. The 
tanager was especially impressive; after seeing only one in my first 
three years in Durham, I had seen five on the NAMC on Saturday, and now 
this one. And I had another to go...

I returned home around 4 PM and started unloading empty bottles, 
newspapers and such from my car. Suddenly I realized that I was hearing 
lots of little call notes from the adjacent Duke Forest, which borders 
our yard on one side. One of the first species I spotted was, of course, 
*another* Scarlet Tanager! Close behind was an immature Chesnut-sided 
Warbler, followed by a couple of Red-eyed Vireos. I spotted several 
Black-and-white Warblers, they suddenly seemed to outnumber even the 
chickadees and titmice! Then a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, followed by more 
warblers: Tennessee, Common Yellowthroat, Black-throated Green, Northern 
Parula. I haven't checked yet, but I think the tanager, Tennessee, and 
Chesnut-sided are all new yard birds, which should push us to 70 species; 
not bad for a shack with no real water and no open sky...

Good birding!

Josh



Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

jsr6@acpub.duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/