To start this post off, I will state that I don't drink. My wife and her friend like to visit wineries on the weekends. That said, a few weeks ago, my wife asked if I would be willing to be the designated driver and drive her and her two friends down for the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. for the weekend. I agreed, but I worried that some good bird might show up in my county while I was down there. We headed down on Friday and checked into our hotel. Little did I know that my fears would come true.
Back on the 21st, a birder named Samrudh Nandagopal birded the Riverbend Environmental Center near Conshohocken and submitted an eBird checklist of the birds he saw there. On the list was a Nashville Warbler with eight photos of the bird. Six days later, before midnight on Friday, Paul Heveran happened to look at the photos and put a post on the PA Birds Discord app asking, "Isn't this a Virginia's Warbler! That's when birders realized that the somewhat-similarly-looking Nashville Warbler was actually a Virginia's, which is a bird normally found in the southwestern United States, and it would be a 1st state record for Pennsylvania! Given that the checklist was from almost a week ago, the question was whether the bird was still there. So on Saturday morning, a group of birders went searching and thankfully refound the warbler still hanging around the area by the parking lot.
I was in our motel room early Saturday morning when Jason Horn sent me a photo that he took of the bird. I couldn't believe my luck, or lack of it. I wouldn't be back in PA until sometime Sunday, so I would have to sweat it out that the bird would stay there another day or two. I said a few nasty words and crossed my fingers and toes that that would happen. We checked out the cherry trees in peak bloom that surrounded the Tidal Basin.
I had my binoculars with me and did find a pair of Buffleheads and several Double-crested Cormorants flying around there. I was watching the texts reporting that the bird was being seen throughout Saturday by many happy birders.
On Sunday, we headed back towards home. I realized that the location of the bird was only about 5 minutes from an exit off of I-476, so I asked the others if they would mind me stopping there and spending about a half-hour looking for it. They had no problem with it, so around 1:00, I parked at the parking lot. Someone there told me that the bird was being seen near the bottom of the ravine, so I headed down there. About ten people were there including Zach Millen. He told me that the bird was seen there a few minutes before, but no one knew which way it went. So, I was back at square one. Stephen Kloiber and his mom came down and he told me that they had been walking around the top of the hill looking for the birders, so they were too late to see it, too. Stephen told me about the trail atop the hill, so I decided to head back to the car using that route. It wasn't looking good as I reached the main gate just short of the parking lot. That's when I saw a grayish bird working through the brush just off the trail. I got my binoculars on it and saw a bold white eye ring and bright yellow undertail coverts. It WAS the Virginia's Warbler! I was relieved to see it, but I didn't take my camera gear with me on the trip, so I wasn't able to get any photos.
I called Stephen, but there was no answer, so I tried texting him. Unfortunately, while doing that, I lost sight of it. Eventually, Stephen, his mom, and the other birders showed up too late once again, and I had to go since it was now way past my half-hour time frame. Stephen and his mom did eventually see the bird. For me, it was a much more pleasant drive home from there.
