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[va-bird] VA Beache/CBBT/Kiptopeke Fieldtrip
- From: "Ray Smith" <rsmith@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Va-Bird@Freelists. Org" <Va-Bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2005 11:34:00 -0800
Sixteen members of the Northern Virginia Audubon Society (new name for the
Fairfax Audubon Society) went on a fieldtrip this weekend to the Virginia
Beach/Eastern Shore of Virginia area, led by Fred Bogar and Ray Smith. It
was a cold weekend with rain on Sunday but we had a great birding time with
87 species including 24 duck species. Probably the highlights were the
Harlequin Ducks on the west side of the 4th tunnel Island, the hundreds of
Long-tailed ducks on all the tunnel islands, and the Gannett. More than
half the group had life-birds and everyone saw new places.
The trip started on Friday at noon near Fredericksburg and we toured the
ponds and fields on Rt. 3, east of Fredericksburg. Most of the ponds were
frozen from several days of 20 degree weather and the waterfowl were scarce.
We had several hundred Ring-billed Gulls and a few Herring Gulls in the
fields along with a few hundred European Starling and Red-winged Blackbirds.
Kestrels on the wires and Turkey Vultures in the sky. At the ponds were;
Turkey Vulture 6
Bald Eagle 7
Red-tailed Hawk 1
American Kestrel 2
Canada Goose 95
Ring-necked Duck 30
Bufflehead 4
Hooded Merganser 4
Common Merganser 3
Red-breasted Merganser 1
Redhead Duck 5
Mallard 20
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Northern Harrier 1
American Crow 25
Northern Mockingbird 4
European Starling 50
Red-winged Blackbird 9
White-throated Sparrow 15
Dark-eyed Junco 12
Northern Cardinal 8
American Robin 15
Song Sparrow 4
We then went to George Washington's birth place. On the road driving in
from Rt. 3, we saw;
Downey Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 5
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1
Wild Turkey 3
Dark-eyed Junco 30
At the Visitor's Center we scanned Pope's Creek and it was frozen and only
had 11 Tundra Swans hunkered down on the ice. We went to the picnic area
and found a bonanza;
Great Blue Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 4
Tundra Swans 240
Mute Swans 12
Canada Goose 110
Green-winged Teal 3
American Black Duck 25
Mallard 30
Northern Pintail 8
Gadwall 50
American Wigeon 2
Canvasback 100
Redhead Duck 25
Common Goldeneye 11
Bufflehead 24
Hooded Merganser 5
Common Merganser 6
Ruddy Duck 35
Bald Eagle 5
Ring-billed Gull 90
Herring Gull 9
Rock Pigeon 10
Downey Woodpecker 2
Pileated Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay 8
American Crow 30
Golden-crowned Kinglet 8
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Northern Mockingbird 4
Northern Cardinal 6
Song Sparrow 2
Pine Siskin 1
American Robin 24
We then drove down to the end of the road at the park, on the Potomac, and
saw large rafts out on the river that included:
Double-crested Cormorant 10
Tundra Swans 15
Canvasback 90
Redhead 30
Greater Scaup 50
Lesser Scaup 1500
Common Goldeneye 400
Bufflehead 30
Common Merganser 50
Ruddy Duck 80
Gadwall 50
Northern Pintail 20
Ring-billed Gull 100
Herring Gull 8
Belted Kingfisher 1
We also saw on the beach area;
Bald Eagle 7
Kildeer 1
Rock Pigeon 20
Carolina Wren 7
Northern Mockingbird 2
Song Sparrow 2
White-throated Sparrow 6
Blue Jay 4
American Robin 20
We then drove to Virginia Beach and stayed at the Howard Johnson's on
Atlantic Avenue and 18th. Saturday morning we toured the CBBT and saw what
may have been a Red-throated Loon on the west side of Island 1 but
definitely saw;
Northern Gannett 6
Brown Pelican 1
Great Cormorant 6
Double-crested Cormorant 30
Common Loon 1
Brant 1
Northern Shoveler 2
Harlequin Duck 3
Black Scoter 55
Surf Scoter 800
White-winged scoter 3
Bufflehead 40
Red-breasted Merganser 50
Long-tailed Duck 300 (the most anyone remembers
seeing at one time)
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Ruddy Turnstone 40
Purple Sandpiper 10
Ring-billed gull 400
Great Black-backed Gull 100
Herring Gull 25
We then drove to Magotha Road and walked the grasses at the end. We went
there first because the salt grass sparrows that hang out there are most
visible at high tide which was around 10:45. However, there was not much
there. The water at the end was frozen. We did pick up;
Swamp Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 6
American Kestrel 2
European Starling 70
Red-winged Blackbird 30
Eastern Meadowlark 12
Red-tailed Hawk 2
Then lunch at Stingray's, a first for many.
Next we went Kiptopeke State Park and birded from the piers where we found;
Common Loon 8
Horned Grebe 3
Surf Scoter 20
Black Scoter 12
White-winged scoter 1
Common Goldeneye 3
Red-breasted Merganser 25
Ruddy Duck 30
Killdeer 2
Ruddy Turnstone 6
Sanderling 50
Western Sandpiper 8
Ring-billed Gull 80
Herring Gull 6
Great Black-backed gull 15
Rock Pigeons 300
Mourning Dove 6
American Crow 20
Savannah Sparrow 12
Song Sparrow 3
American Robin 20
Our last stop on Saturday was Eastern Shore NWR. At the Visitor Center we
had;
Eastern Bluebird 10
Northern Mockingbird 6
Yellow-rumped Warbler 100
Northern Cardinal 8
Savannah Sparrow 12
Dark-eyed Junco 24
House Sparrow 10
Then on the refuge we had;
Black Vulture 15
Canada Goose 60
Hooded Merganser 2
American Kestrel 2
Killdeer 2
Solitary Sandpiper 1
Sanderling 15
Ring-billed Gull 30
Mourning Dove 5
Northern Flicker 2
American Crow 3
Carolina Chickadee 3
Tufted Titmouse 4
Carolina Wren 2
Northern Mockingbird 4
Yellow-rumped Warbler 60
Song Sparrow 6
Red-winged Blackbird 2000
American Robin 15
Back to the hotel. Saturday night after dinner at Rockfish, we had a great
lecture from Fletcher Smith of the Center for Conservation Biology (CCB) at
William and Mary. He gave us a power point presentation on the new radar
program that The Nature Conservancy has in Oyster doing a Fall migration
tracking program in cooperation with NASA. Fletcher worked on this program
with Barry Truitt of TNC. The slide show was fascinating and they will be
writing about the results in the near future. One thing it will help TNC do
is to better target their land acquisition priorities on the Eastern Shore.
Fletcher then gave us a presentation on the Colonial Bird Nest monitoring
program that he helps with on the TNC 50,000 acres including the Barrier
Islands. The results are pretty scary. For most of the birds the annual
breeding results has been going down for many years. The main problems
seems to be predation from raccoons and foxes, and habitat loss.
BTW, at dinner Fletcher confirmed that both he and Dr. Byrd of CCB have
never seen so many Long-tailed Ducks on the CBBT and no one seems to know
why.
Sunday we had a private tram tour of the Back Bay NWR ponds and False Cape
State Park, and then in the afternoon we toured Craney Island. Because of
the rain and the cold the Back Bay tour turned into a bus tour of those
things and it was lead by a very knowledgeable volunteer named Bob. The
amazing thing was the number and species diversity of shorebirds on many of
the ponds. Most of the ponds were frozen which reduced the numbers in
general. At Back Bay we saw;
Great Blue Heron 3
Turkey Vulture 4
Tundra Swan 8
Snow Goose 8
Canada Goose 50
Wood Duck 6
American Black Duck 50
Mallard 100
Gadwall 6
Coopers Hawk 1
Black-bellied Plover 1
Killdeer 3
Greater Yellowlegs 3
Sanderling 50
Western Sandpiper 30
Least Sandpiper 2
Wilson's Snipe 6
Northern Mockingbird 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1
American Robin 25
Then we drove across to Craney Island and toured it. The ponds on top were
frozen and there no birds there. The water was rough and there were a few
Ruddy Ducks. All and all though after driving home in the rain and snow, we
felt we had a terrific trip and hope to do it again.
Ray Smith
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