Date of sighting: 20 June 2011

Today a Tennessee Warbler sang lustily of loss, whiskey, and
impossible redemption on Rush Creek, about a kilometer upstream of the
Rush Creek Road ford. I filmed the bird (his song anyway) and I have
some photos which I will hopefully and successfully attach with this
post.

I was on “WIFL Central” today, the reach of Rush Creek that once held
up to 10 adult Willow Flycatchers. The population has declined
steadily since 2004, and yesterday I found just one adult, a bird I
suspected was a female. Due to her location, I believed she was Red-
Yellow/Silver, a bird that showed up in 2006 and which has never
successfully fledged young due to Brown-headed Cowbird activity.

Today I saw her bands, and she was in fact THE female, the oldest
known Willow Flycatcher (US Bird Banding Lab). She is likely one of
the founders of the Rush Creek population, and I found her first nest
nearly ten years ago to the day. She’s by far the most successful
adult on Rush, having fledged something like 18 of the 40 or so young
to have made it out of the nest during the study.
And she’s outlasted them all: she has no mate and is alone.
Completely amazing and heartbreaking at the same time. She broke the
record in 2009 and is now at least 12th year, meaning she was born in
1999 at the latest.

Other interesting birds included a possible Blue Grosbeak (I heard 1/2
a song and nothing more – closest thing would be a Cassin’s Finch but
it didn’t sound right for a CAFI) and a lone Cedar Waxwing. My iPod
(on shuffle) immediately kicked in with a trenchant steel-toed boot,
playing Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque, the Rolling Stones’ She Smiled
Sweetly, and Strangers by the Kinks in succession while I ruminated on
all the things that have happened to me and these birds in the last
ten years.

This post was submitted by McCreedy.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 20th, 2011 at 8:47 pm and is filed under Birds. You can view One Response on this post or leave your own response if you log in.