McCary's Migrants

Summer 2010
The Eastern wood pewee, a diminutive brown “plain Jane” of the bird world, would be easily overlooked were it not for the fact that he calls attention to his presence by repeatedly singing his name. Like other flycatchers, he is wont to sally forth from a branch to snap up a hapless insect and then return to almost the exact spot from whence he came. Mission accomplished, he will frequently celebrate his success with his haunting, rather wistful whistle: “Pee-a-wee, pee-yur…” The first notes rise with expectation; the latter fall dramatically.

The pewee spends the winter in Central and South America; thus he graces us with his company only in the breeding season. He enjoys the trees near the Great House at Shirley; certainly he finds many tasty insects in the formal gardens and by the banks of the James River nearby.

Speaking of breeding, a handsome pair of barn swallows has been busy incubating eggs in a nest they constructed at the top of one of pillars on the portico of the Great House. Barn swallows also spend the cold months in Central and South America; they usually arrive in Virginia fairly early in the spring.

We have a number of these of these lovely swallows nesting in the old barn at Shirley, but imagine our excitement when the one couple chose the landside portico as their summer home. We have witnessed the preparation of the nest, the brooding, and now on the 20th of June, the arrival of three tiny chicks. I believe these birds are on their way to becoming the most photographed swallows in the entire state of Virginia!


Ask Tom about Birding at Shirley Plantation
Birdwatching in 2004

Birdwatching in 2005

Birdwatching in 2006

Birdwatching in 2007

Birdwatching in 2008

Birdwatching in 2009

Birdwatching in 2010
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