edm@vrdxhq.verdix.com (Ed Matthews) (12/11/89)
To help move the topic away from this infernal blabber about cats, I spent a few interesting hours out in the woods behind my house (DC area) this weekend. We had just gotten a new five inch snowfall and I was out doing one of my favorite winter activities, tracking the local wildlife population. I was following the trail of a pair of foxes, listening to the cardinals, jays, and especially to the ever-noisy titmice. I came upon a fresh deer trail made by a couple of deer, one smaller than the other. I had followed that trail to its source to find a pair of does when all of a sudden 6 large crows came mobbing overhead and starting screaming at what I supposed to be either a hawk or an owl. Not one to pass up a good scrap, I hustled off to the creek bottom where the crows were calling. Just as I was about to move out of the pine/cedar thicket I was in into the creek bottom clearing, I heard a red tail scream. I looked up just in time to see it take wing from a huge oak tree. I was also surprised to see two other red tails and a black vulture with it. Anyway, the red tails were pretty nonchalant about the six crows and went about their business. They came down pretty low and circled over me -- I like to think they were watching me watching them. The vulture cruised along with with them, but the crows never harassed it. So at this point I'm distracted from animals and got my mind on birds and have about three hours of daylight left. I can see all manner of woodpeckers darting across the clearing I'm in and the thickets are thick with birds going for the new berry crop. So I worked my way north along the creek and found a promising thicket. The snow made it easy to pick out the hard to spot ground feeders like the rufous-sided towhee. I'd heard towhees calling all along the creek and got to see a couple up in the bushes. The thickets were almost overwhelmed with tufted titmice -- I saw hundreds, if not thousands. Song sparrows and slate juncos were also much in evidence. And I saw a new one for me, a yellow-breasted chat. Working back south along the creek, I decided to stalk some of the many woodpeckers who were feasting on the ancient sycamores in the creek bottom. I kept seeing red bellies dart across the clearings; I saw five in a group once and three once. I also saw several rectangular excavations in the trees and knew I had to be seeing some pileateds. Among all the zebraback screams, I heard the occasional pileated. Then as I was walking, I heard three birds really pounding the trees in a fifty yard stretch of creek bank. Within two or three minutes I had visually identified two (one was really gorgeous) and the other serenaded me (sure, it was talking to me!) for about ten seconds, the longest I've ever heard one call. When you first spot a pileated with the sun behind it and can't really see its colors too well, don't you sometimes hope that when it pulls its beak out where you can see it that the beak's going to be an off cream color? Wishful thinking. As I was following the creek across a fifty yard wide gas pipeline clearing, I heard a raptor (or so I think) call. I looked off to the left to see a crow sized, white bird doing a figure eight above the creek bottom. It was unfortunately too far away and stayed for too little time for me to get any better idea of what it is. It looked like a kite to me, however, we don't have any kites here as far as I know. I'm forced to conclude that I goofed on the voice and that it is some kind of gull in off the Potomac. Later on I stalked some more woodpeckers, seeing both a hairy and a downy. Also saw a gorgeous red-belly. Came back the next day to try to spot the unknown white bird with no luck. Did see three red tails circling with three unknowns. I only saw the unknowns from the bottom: snow white, no bands on the tail, bottoms of the wing tip primaries were black, same size as the red tails. Any clues? -- Ed Matthews edm@verdix.com Verdix Corporation Headquarters (703) 378-7600 Chantilly, Virginia