On Sept. 4th we had a fantastic movement of birds at our home on
Mt. Pleasant, in Skamania County. Our property is at the 1,200 foot
elevation at the western end of the Columbia River Gorge about six miles
east of Washougal. When I first noted the birds at about 9:00 AM the
Cascara Trees and Blue Elderberry bushes were full of CEDAR WAXWINGS and
WESTERN TANAGERS stripping the fruit from these plants. From our deck I
could see about a dozen of each specie at a time although there was a
steady movement of the birds moving South through the property. Both
BLACK-CAPPED and CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICKADEES were in constant motion going
to and from the sunflower seed feeders. ORANGE-CROWNED and WILSON'S
WARBLERS were zipping between the brushy areas and several HAMMOND'S
FLYCATCHERS joined the more common PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHERS flitting
among the trees.
My attention was drawn to a small gray-headed bird in constant
motion in a patch of Mountain Ash Trees. I observed the bird for about
five minutes as it moved in and out of view before it disappeared into
the forest. It had a greenish back, light yellow breast and white under
tail coverts. There were no wingbars, at first I thought it may be a
vireo but as I viewed it I could see that it had a very thin bill and was
not acting vireo like at all . The face pattern was much like that of a
Warbling Vireo and I came to the conclusion that what I had was a
TENNESSEE WARBLER. I would have liked to continue to pursue the bird but
I was already late in picking my wife up at the hospital were she had
just been released after surgery after breaking her ankle yesterday
morning.
When we got back home I continued to watch the birds while I
tended to her needs, FRS radios made it easy for me to run outside and
still be instantly available if she needed anything. The bird movement
continued into late afternoon with a change in species BLACK-HEADED
GROSBEAKS, RED-EYED VIREOS, and WARBLING VIREOS replaced the selection of
the morning and we had a ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRD visit the feeder while four
BLACK SWIFTS cruised overhead in company of a flock of VIOLET-GREEN
SWALLOWS. Other migrant species seen were, DOWNY WOODPECKER, SWAINSON'S
THRUSH, AMERICAN ROBIN, RED CROSSBILL, and EVENING GROSBEAK.
I have had the pleasure of experiencing fallouts at Cape May, The
Dry Tortugas, and High Island and although the variety was not as good as
at those spots there were several birds in view at all times and I could
not check them all out. The joy of frantic birding.
Wilson Cady
gorgebirds at juno.com