Still no word from the “Anonymous eBirder,” but we don’t need him any longer because I saw the Bell’s Vireo today. Here’s where it is:
Walk out Sparrow Alley and turn left at the power line cut. Go past the first set of power poles, with the Osprey nest on top. You’ll have noticed the black plastic “silt fencing” parallel to the power line cut on both sides of the trail. Not far past the power poles, the fencing makes a 90-degree turn and comes in perpendicular to the edge of the trail on both sides. About a hundred feet beyond this point you’ll see a small cluster of leafless trees on the right. The bird was in the blackberry just beyond these trees. Mike Manetz and I thought we heard it at that exact spot yesterday afternoon at around 2:00, but we never got a look at it.
Bill Pennewill and Lee Yoder are going to be mad at me, because they stuck around till 12:30 in hope of seeing the bird. Finally the three of us headed toward the exit, but I turned back to photograph some wild plum trees in the old ani field while they went on to lunch. On the way back from taking my pictures I walked down the power line cut one more time, and as I approached the cluster of leafless trees at about 1:30 I saw a small green-and-yellow bird hop up from the ground at the edge of the trail into the brambles (I don’t think I’ve ever seen a vireo on the ground before). As I watched through my binoculars it continued to forage along the edge of the trail, always less than a foot off the ground. And then I lost track of it. I stuck around for another five minutes to see if it would come out again, but it didn’t.
I have no idea whether it stays in that spot all the time or not. Mike thought he heard it on the other (south) side of the trail this morning, and later both Bryan Tarbox and I heard some Bell’s-like vocalizations even further south, toward the main part of La Chua.
There are plenty of White-eyed Vireos around, one or two Orange-crowned Warblers, plus an Empidonax flycatcher (it looked like a Least to me, but didn’t vocalize) that was directly across the trail from the Bell’s spot. So caveat empid (“Let the birder beware”): the Bell’s isn’t the only greenish bird out there.