Subject: Hutton's Vireo
Date: Feb 4 14:21:10 2001
From: Jon. Anderson and Marty Chaney - festuca at olywa.net


Hi folks,

Spent the day at home yesterday, so I set up 2 mist-nets to do a bit of
banding from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mostly nothing moving in the yard (or
neighborhood), as far as birds, for most of the day. I'd re-captured 5
juncos in the morning - the 'oldest' being a female I'd first captured in
October of 1997 as a 'hatch-year' bird and hadn't encountered since.

Then, about 2pm, a little feeding guild went through the back yard. I
watched the birds, mostly black-capped chickadees, kinglets, a downy
woodpecker, a couple of butter-butts (couldn't see whether Audubon's or
Myrtle...), juncos, etc., etc. When the birds had flown over across the
street, I checked the mist-net to find 9 birds in it! A recaptured female
junco that was a HY bird in 1999, an unbanded junco, 2 ruby-crowned
kinglets, a golden-crowned sparrow, 2 black-capped chickadees, a Bewick's
wren, and TWO Hutton's Vireos!

I had never before seen a HUVI in my yard; I've thought I'd heard them
before, but with all the starlings (I know, I know.. bad word) in the area,
I've never been certain that I wasn't just hearing a Sturnid mimic call.
These vireos were beautiful birds in bright, crisp plumage, and were fairly
fat. Never having seen one up close before, since I usually just hear them
or see glimpses in the tops of the old-growth, I was impressed with the
amount of white (pale) in the lores - much more than is shown in the Natl.
Geo or old Peterson or Golden guides. These birds are obviously in the
neighborhood, and I welcomed the chance to see them up close.

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net