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Orange Co., NC: B-h Vireo and others in the yard



I love this time of year in my yard when the winter residents arrive right
on the heels (wingtips?) of summer residents departing, and strictly
pass-through birds add to the mix.
Oct. 12: Magnolia Warbler and a first-fall female Black-throated Blue put in
brief appearances, while the first White-throated Sparrow of the winter
arrives alone:  "Seet." It hides in a brushpile that I began in the fall of
'96 with the wreckage of pines left by Hurricane Fran.
Oct. 13:  6 Chimney Swifts fly over my house, surely the last of the year.
An absolutely fresh, gorgeous BLUE-HEADED VIREO hangs out in a sourwood tree
in full view for a couple of minutes and sings at about half-volume. I think
I hear the first Winter Wren of fall in the yard but am not positive.
There's a Ruby-crowned Kinglet flicking its wings and gleaning.
Oct. 14:  I finally see the Winter Wren that has been saying "chimp-chimp"
near my front door. 
Oct. 15:  A flock of Eastern Bluebirds drops down into dogwood trees in my
yard, I think for fruit. I have been hearing them warble while flying high
but haven't seen them come down and alight. A sapsucker (first seen last
week in the woods) comes to a tree near the feeder where I've just hung a
suet cake. 
"Transitional birding," as Bill Hilton put it, is good!
Ginger Travis
near Chapel Hill, NC