[va-bird] King William and King and Queen counties Sat 1/31/04

[Frederick Atwood <fredatwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

Howdy y'all.

I am very sorry for the really late posting but
I've been wicked busy this week.

Here are the birds I saw in a few places in the
Walkerton CBC area along the Pamunkey and
Mattaponi Rivers between 9 AM and 5:30 PM on
Saturday.  It was a beautiful day with a brisk
cold breeze.  Most of the water was frozen so the
birds were fairly concentrated.   Tide was low in
the afternoon on the Pamunkey at Elsing Green and
the Pamunkey flats were full of shorebirds. 
Highlights were golden eagle, willet, Brewer's
blackbirds and superb views of bald eagles eating
fishes. It is also unusual to see so many
redheads and canvasbacks here.
P=Pocket, EG = Elsing Green(private), W=
Walkerton(bridge, Whitehall(private), and
Carol-Lee Walker's pond (private).) 

Pied-billed Grebe: 1 EG
Double-crested Cormorant: 3 EG, 3 P
Great Blue Heron: 17 Pocket, 14 EG, 4 W
Tundra Swan: 80 P and EG
Canada Goose: 3375 EG, 400 W. Searched carefully
for other goose spp and neck-tagged geese but
found none
Wood Duck: 13 EG
Green-winged Teal: 10 EG and P
Black Duck: 265 EG, 10 W
Mallard: 440 EG and P, 55 W
Pintail: 1340 EG and P (highest # I've seen here)
2 W
Gadwall: 15 EG
American Wigeon: 3 EG
Redhead: 6 EG, 1 P
Canvasback:  31 EG, 16 P, 25 W
Ring-necked duck 25 EG, 4 P, 65 W
Common Goldeneye (female) 1 W
Bufflehead 17 EG, @5 P
Hooded Merganser 18 EG, 4 P, 11 W
Common Merganser 8 EG, 6 P
Black Vulture 7
Turkey Vulture 24
Bald Eagle adult 5 EG and P
Bald Eagle imm 6 EG and P
Golden Eagle imm, EG (also seen on 1/4 on CBC)
Harrier 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 3
Red-tailed Hawk 5
Kestrel 2
Bobwhite 10 EG
Coot 1 P, 5 W
Killdeer 14 EG, 2 P, 3 W, 14 other
Greater Yellowlegs 7 EG
Lesser Yellowlegs 6 EG
WILLET 1 EG (my first for the middle peninsula)
Dunlin 225 in EG and P
Snipe 3 EG
Ring-billed Gull 68
Herring Gull 6 EG and P
Great black-backed Gull 1 at P (first for here)
Mourning Dove 310 (especially at EG eating corn)
Belted Kingfisher 3
Red-bellied Woddpecker 8
Yellow-bellied sapsucker 3
Downy woodpecker 3
Flicker 35
Pileated 1
phoebe 2
no horned larks
blue jay 6, crow 35, chickadee 4, titmouse 3
white breasted nuthatch 2
carolina wren only 4
golden-crowned kinglet 4
ruby-crowned kinglet 5
bluebird only 20
hermit thrush 8
robin 120 in three flocks
catbird 1 King William roads
mockingbird 7
american pipit 16 EG
cedar waxwing one flock of about 15
starling 30 in two flocks
yellow-rumped warbler only 5
cardinal 18
towhee 9
field sparrow 8
savannah sparrow 4
fox sparrow 12
song sparrow 90
white-throat 220
junco 75
blackbirds: 1 flock of about 1900 birds eating
corn at EG including about 500 grackles, 1400
red-wings, 4 Brewer's blackbird and 3 cowbird
40 meadowlark at EG
9 goldfinch

In addition I saw a bird in the distance from The
Pocket among the heat haze that I thought might
have been a snowy owl.  It was big and white and
appeared to have a larger owl-like head.  It also
appeared to have the dark barring on the wings. 
It was very far away and among the heat haze so I
scanned to try to find a better place to visit to
see it better. When I got back to the bird's
perch it was gone. I searched for another hour,
drove to other nearby places where it might have
gone to, and came back again in the afternoon for
a while to look for it but did not get another
view.  I am not convinced enough to count this
bird but if someone wants to check it out to see
if maybe I was right, you need to go to
Powhatan's gravesite at the end of Pocket Rd (the
first right after crossing the railroad tracks on
the way to the Pamunkey reservation). (Follow
signs to reservation along Powhatan Trail from
route 30).  It was on the far side of the river
on a large branch of a tree, the same bracnh
where I later saw an eagle perch (I have never
seen a snowy owl in a tree, only on the ground,
on buildings, on blinds, on fences, or on ice
blocks, which is one of the reasons why I am
doubting my intitial excited ID.) If it wasn't a
snowy owl, what else could it be?  Perhaps a
front view of a red-tail distorted by the heat
haze? They can look really white underneath, and
the dark belly band could perhaps have fooled my
hopeful brain into thinking it was the wing
barring of a snowy.  Well, perhaps it's the big
"fish" that got away;  this is all part of the
fun of birding!  


All the best
Fred








=====
Frederick D. Atwood     fredatwood@xxxxxxxxx
Flint Hill School, 10409 Academic Dr, Oakton, VA 22124
703-242-1675     
http://www.agpix.com/fredatwood
http://www.flinthill.org

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[va-bird] King William and King and Queen counties Sat 1/31/04