vermivora (from vermis, worm, and vorare, to devour) peregrina (wandering alien)
Saturday, May 10, 1980 — 7:45 am
Conway, Arkansas — Happy Valley
I left the road and headed gingerly into the woods halfway up the hillside, wary about Copperheads. I heard a Tennessee Warbler singing repeatedly. It was quite a while before I spotted it on a perch high up in the oak woods.
dendroica (from dendron, tree, and oikein, to dwell) castanea (chestnut)
Saturday, May 10, 1980 — 7:25 am
Conway, Arkansas — Happy Valley
It wasn’t a wave — more like a ripple. But there were warblers scattered throughout the woods on the hillside. I spotted a Bay-breasted Warbler foraging in the woods along the road.
contopus (from kontos, short, and pous, foot) virens (to be green)
Saturday, May 10, 1980 — 7:15 am
Conway, Arkansas — Happy Valley
I continued along the road up the hill. I heard the Pewee giving its plaintive “pee-o-wee” song and saw it hawking insects in the woods.
vermivora (from vermis, worm, and vorare, to devour) ruficapilla (from rufus, reddish, and capillus, hair)
Saturday, May 10, 1980 — 7:15 am
Conway, Arkansas — Happy Valley
I got a chance to meet one of the delightful local residents this morning. I walked down the road and stopped near a creek to look at a Loggerhead Shrike. It was perched on a wire over a cow pasture, and I set up my scope to look at it for a while. A short while as it turned out. Suddenly, a lady came screaming out of a trailer home behind me and yelled, “Hey, what are you doing?” I replied as sweetly as I could, “I’m watching birds.” She screamed in a very arrogant manner, “Get out of here.” I hadn’t been looking anywhere near her, or any other, house, so, still being very nice, I said, “I’m just watching that bird over there. I’m being careful not to look near any houses.” She screeched, “If you don’t leave right now, I’m calling the cops.” It was pretty evident that I wasn’t going to be able to reason with this idiot. I almost told her to go ahead and call the cops, figuring that I wasn’t doing anything I needed to worry about. But then I considered the things I’d heard about southern sheriffs and the fact that the lady probably had a shotgun. I packed up my scope and walked away
I walked up the road in the other direction. In the woods along the road, just where it starts up the hill, I found a small flock of warblers. In the midst of them, I spotted a Nashville Warbler.
thryothorus (from thryon, a reed, and thouros, rushing, leaping) ludovicianus (of Louisiana)
Friday, May 9, 1980 — 7:20 am
Conway, Arkansas — Happy Valley
Along the road up the hill there is a cut-out in the dirt embankment along the road bordered on three sides by a 10-foot wall of dirt and on the other side by the road. The ground is partly covered with a tangle of fallen trees. The Carolina Wrens were foraging in the brush and root-tangle. I looked for them because I had heard them singing a few minutes earlier.
