Kennesaw Mountain Report  9/16/2004                

 

0740-0940  Weather: awful. Overcast, dark, foggy above saddle, and raining.
Rain varied from drizzle to downpour. These are the outlying bands of
Hurricane Ivan, which will create heavy rain in the area for the next 36
hours or so. Winds E 10-20 kts.

 

Obs: G Beaton

 

GCTH 1  fots

SWTH 1

WOTH 1

GWWA 1f

TEWA 2

MAWA 1

BTNW 2 chips

BLBW 1f

BAWW 2  1f 1if

OVEN 1

MOWA 1  fots  see below

HOWA 1 chip                             9 species of warblers

SCTA 2 chip

 

It was very difficult to see much of anything between the dark, fog and
rain. Above the saddle there were lots of birds moving around, but unless
they came within about 6 feet of me I could not even guess at their id. All
the thrushes were call notes only. The MOWA was in the scrub just to the
left of the saddle stairs on the downhill side. As I was standing at the
stairs pishing and whistling a screech-owl imitation during a lull in the
rain, the MOWA started chipping very loudly from down in the brush to the
left of the stairs close to the road where I was standing. It was completely
hidden, but by the loud sharp repeated chip note I knew it could only be one
of a handful of warblers so I was watching carefully. It finally moved into
a position near the edge of a bush, and I was able to see the unmarked
yellow lower breast and belly and undertail coverts, the unmarked greenish
back, and the relative size of the bird. I tried to move a bit to see the
head but the bird bailed and I never saw it, even though the bird continued
to call from farther back in the brush. From the view I had I finally
realized it had to be an Oporornis of some kind. I was able to eliminate the
other congeners (Connecticut and Kentucky) by the chip note (yes, I even
came home and listened to MacGillivray's), and confirmed the chip note as a
MOWA also through the use of bird song cds. Without seeing the head I have
no idea of the age or sex. After I came home I spoke to Pierre Howard about
it, and he mentioned that they had a bird chipping in the same general area
yesterday that they thought was a MOWA also but never could see at all. This
bird probably will not leave during all this rain, so if anyone can get up
there right after the weather ends, whenever that is, they might have a shot
at it. Giff