Cameron, 10/01/11

       Yesterday, Mac Myers and I met up with Dave Patton in Cameron Parish.  Birding was pretty good; it was one of those days where everybody afield was bound to find something that pleased them.  I spent a lot of my morning walking through knee-high brush kicking up sparrows, mostly Clay-coloreds and Savannahs.
       When I made it into the woods, I lucked onto a Blackpoll Warbler.  Blackpolls migrate through Louisiana in spring and at times can be common to abundant.  However, their fall migration path takes them from the East Coast over the Atlantic all the way to South America.  In fall, Blackpolls are rare birds here.  I was excited to find this bird. Even though I'd seen plenty in the spring, I considered it the best bird I saw all day.      

          Dave left the woods a little earlier than Mac and me, and soon called to let us know he'd found a Say's Phoebe on the way out.  Say's Phoebes are slender, brown and buff western flycatchers that stray east regularly in small numbers, small enough that finding one makes for a good birding day.  The bird had moved a bit from where Dave reported it, but we kept our eyes open and relocated it a bit farther along.

     
     











            Later on, in a different location, another common warbler made a rare appearance.  Orange-crowned warblers are common here in winter, but usually start showing up here in late October.  Many Orange-crowneds are reported earlier than this, but the reports I've followed up on have always proven to be cases of mistaken identity.  As a matter of fact, when I first saw this bird (only the rear half of the bird was visible), the gray color of the body and the yellow tones near the tail had me hoping this was something truly rare like a Virginia's Warbler.  That hope died when I saw this bird's face, but I was still pretty pleased with an early Orange-crowned.  Later, in the same woods, I got looks at a different Orange-crowned, a more typically greenish bird.

       

             On the ride in the morning, Mac and I had discussed the lack of Bell's Vireo reports this fall.  Bell's are fairly early migrants, and by the beginning of October there are often a few reports.  I was wondering if I'd already missed my chance to see one this year, which would have been a shame because I missed them last year, too.  Luckily (the key word in birding is luck), Mac and I stumbled onto a Bell's late in the day.  The light was horrible for photos, but I managed to coax the following image out of my shots.  Don't adjust your screen, I simply suck as a photographer.