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"mystery" blackbird opinion and Cane Creek, NC sightings



Birders,

This weekend I birded the Cane Creek area and the Dairyland Rd. area in 
Orange Co., NC with the family.  Points of interest included:

Black-crowned Night-Heron (3 immatures in a little pond were a good find!)
Sharp-shinned Hawk
no harriers (disappointing after seeing so many at the coast last weekend)
Canvasback (2, my first of season)
American Pipit (a handful at Cane Creek)
White-crowned Sparrow (a couple adults at Cane Creek; 1st of season)
Rusty Blackbird (singing (!) at Cane Creek; 1st of season)

In addition, I saw a "mystery blackbird".  It was a fall male 
Brewer's/Rusty type feeding in a mixed flock in a cornfield with 
Red-wings, cowbirds and grackles.  With the mid-afternoon sun at my back 
I noted the following:  pale eye; dark bill which didn't strike me as 
particularly large or small; distinct pale buff-beige eyebrow which ran 
from the the bill to well behind the eye; mottled brownish head, breast, 
and back; dull oily black wings and tail completely without any rusty 
edges/markings on coverts, scapulars, or tertials.  It walked through the 
cornfield rows like the other birds, but it did not cock its tail up, 
like I've seen Brewer's do out west.  It looked "just like the picture" 
of the fall variant male Brewer's Blackbird in the National Geographic 
Guide, however, since Brewer's Blackbird is an EXTREMELY rare bird in the 
NC piedmont, I'd like some opinion on whether fall Rusty's can lack rusty 
edges.  Also, I've seen hundreds and hundreds of Brewer's Blackbirds in 
the last couple of years in the southwest and I've seen lots of Rusty 
Blackbirds over the years here in NC.  Although this bird was definitely 
one of those two, it didn't jump out at me as definitely one or the 
other, as they often do.  Even though it looked to me like the Brewer's 
in the NGS guide, my gut feeling is that it was a Rusty.  Any thoughts?


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jeff Pippen   	 				 jspippen@duke.edu
Biology Dept. Box 90338				
Duke University, Durham, NC  27708		PH: (919) 660-7278
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