Subject: [Tweeters] Skamania County Philadephia Vireo
Date: Sep 1 11:32:45 2008
From: gorgebirds at juno.com - gorgebirds at juno.com


On Saturday, with a few migrants moving through our woods we set
up a sprinkler next to a large Highbush Cranberry shrub to see if we
could get some of the birds to drop down in to the bush to foliage bath.
We have done this in past years with great success and we have good views
of many species from a short distance while we sit on the deck drinking
coffee with our binoculars around our necks. After about a half an hour
we had BLACK-THROATED GRAY and WILSON'S WARBLERS flitting among the
dripping leaves.
A small yellowish bird dropped into the shrubbery and when I got
a look at it I thought it was some type of juvenile warbler but then
noted the thick stubby bill on the bird. It looked much like a
foreshortened Warbling Vireo but was round headed like a wood warbler,
the undersides including the undertail coverts and throat were a fairly
even bright greenish-yellow, the upper parts were greenish brown. The
bird had no wingbars, it had a grayish head with a darker gray cap. At
first I thought it had a broken eye-ring much like a MacGillivray's
Warbler but after repeated views of it as it popped in and out of the
leaves I saw that this was created by two arched white lines one above
the eye and another below it with a darker gray line through the eye. I
was able to watch the bird for about two minutes before it flew off,
unfortunately as I was sitting on the deck about twenty feet from the
bird I was not able to get up and go into the house and get a camera.
After consulting every book that I have and looking at images on-line I
am certain that this was a PHILADELHIA VIREO, a Skamania County first
sighting.

Wilson Cady
Washougal, WA
____________________________________________________________
Save on Emergency Alert Systems. Click here.
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/Ioyw6i3mXtaJQ0KJ4QJdFaWqW1EDICeTxwuBO28FAsXgdWU8Ddr4U3/