Monday, September 7, 2015

Odd mix of migrants at NBC

Today at the National Butterfly Center (DON'T call  me NABA) I had a fun mix of migrants in the forest trail.  First up was a female plumaged Varied Bunting, with a nicely curved culmen and unstreaked breast.  The rounded blue tail was vigorously shaken in my direction before she headed back to the sorghum field that was being harvested next door.   Next was a female or immature MacGillivray's  Warbler with a nice split eyering.  Interestingly I didn't see a Mourning until the second pass through, and then I saw at least four along with a repeat appearance by the Mac's.  Last goodie of the day was a dull plumaged Tropical Parula, with no white crescents on the face, dark lores, and an extensive yellow breast lacking the dark crescent and apparently lacking the orange wash.

The most common migrants and others were Willow and Least Flycatcher, Canada Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Clay-colored Thrush (many juvs), Blue Grosbeak, Dickcissel, and more.  It was a fun couple hours since I couldn't get farther from home today.