the modest birder(22) a big day from my chair

           May 14, 2014. This was the birdiest day ever from my armchair in the living room overlooking our descending slope and the steeper up-slope on the other side of the creek. A few trees were still leafing out and the hickories were blooming, most upper stories were visible. Fortunately the hickories are late for the two closest have overhanging branches that, in full leaf, create a dense curtain. I looked out at 8.30 to see if there was any movement. There had been a few birds most days, mostly Yellow Rumps interspersed with a Blue-headed and twice a Warbling vireo. On the tenth a Swainson Thrush hang around all day foraging on the lawn by the creek for a few minutes only to disappear in the brush. By 1 pm it hopped along the wall of the herb terrace. It was still around early the next morning but then the excitement was caused by a Blue Grosbeak that fed for about 20 minutes in the newly weeded herb beds which are about 25ft below the window; a "first of the yard" bird. The next few day we were busy readying and planting the vegetable beds.
         The first bird on the 14th was an Baltimore Oriole, probably one of the four that were around since the 3d. Soon after a Cooper's landed on a branch of the 2nd tree down the slope. It shook its feathers as if it came out of an attack. It was probably a male and still in its 1st year plumage. While I was watching the hawk, a crow came over being harassed by three of our local Blue Jays. I was just about to go outside to check the new plantings when a small flock of warblers appeared in the crowns of the neighbor's woods (which are widest (300 yards) an densest of our woods that begin in a triangle where the creek goes under the road, about .4 miles to the South). From 10am till noon there was continuous activity, mostly in the upper stories following the creek that leaves our woods between steep wooded slopes on its way down to the Perkiomen (at about 3/4 mile), a "scenic river" that is also very wooded and provided a corridor in a generally North-South direction.
          It became busy and I dismissed the brown ones as unidentified females to concentrate on the colored males some of which obligingly came down and in the closest trees, e.g. a Black-throated Green, a Tennessee, 3 Black and Whites and a Chestnut-sided (which may have been the resident in the second growth 27 acre field across the street), as well as a female Cape May, a female Black-throated Blue and a few Yellow Rumps. Active for several hours in the upper story of an oak were two Blackburnians, at least one Baybreasted and a Redstart. Also passing through were a male Indigo Btgn, a female Scarlet Tanager, a Hairy Woodpecker. Most exciting were 3 Sandhill Cranes at 1.30 that floated in small circles above the farm fields and above our trees in small circles, briefly flapping occasionally to maintain height; recalling the hundreds seen in Arizona or the flocks of Common Cranes coming in for a landing at one of the lakes in Champagne (France). The were also "first of the yard" birds. Some warblers also hang around during the afternoon, all in the upper stories and I assumed they were the same as the morning birds.
           My tally of the migrants seen from 8.30 till 5pm, having no doubt missed some while I checked my Sibley, made coffee, etc., was 61, including the unidentified "females." Nine identified male warblers (with a Blackpoll among some "15 left overs" the next morning) and the 2 females is pretty much the number of warbler species that I see  in our woods during both Spring and Fall migrations. It turned out that the same week was a big warbler week according to regional ABA reports and at a nearby reserve 23 species were counted.
          But because I sat there for most of the day (I had to get up frequently in the afternoon to avoid getting stiff in my 83 year old bones), I also became aware how many local residents visit our woods. There were a total of  37 birds of 18 species including 2 Great-crested Flycatchers as well as the Great-blue Heron that checks out the creek bed about twice each week. Not seen were the Scarlet Tanagers that are residents for the first time in the 14 years that we live here, or the Phoebe that breeds under the neighbor's balcony and of which the first fledgling sat on the feeder pole this morning (6-23-14).
          The tanagers became more frequent visitors as May wore on. The male often sang in the oaks right above the house and on the 28th he was "flycatching" near 3 Baltimore Orioles and the next day both the female and male were foraging in the trees above the creek. As I was watching them a Willow Flycatcher was in the lower branches, probably the same one that appeared irregularly since the 16th and more surprising were, what to the wishful birder in me looked like, 2 Philadelphia Vireos. Pretty ironic as it had been a target bird for our Maine trip last year. But, of course, they were Warbling Vireos; they were still around on June 4 and 6 when one was feeding the other and Philadelpias would be well established on their northern breeding grounds. Also odd for June was the appearance of a male Yellow Warbler, that was busy foraging in the close hickories for several hours one afternoon and again the next morning. A visitor from the brushy creek bed?