FreeLists / va-bird / [va-bird] Eastern Shore / Northern Shrike

[Phoebetria@xxxxxxx]

A Northern Shrike (SY or older) was obligingly perched along Rte 13 on the 
northwestern corner of Fisherman Island this sunny, calm morning (5 March) at 
0740-0745; it was watching Yellow-rumped Warblers from a perch in a small 
sapling about 25 feet west of the southbound lanes, roughly even with the 
"Authorized Vehicles Only" turn-around.  I did not see it when crossing at 1530 
this 
afternoon, but the weather had turned to heavy snow by then.   This is probably 
the same shrike that Matt Sharp found on the CBC here 30 December and Bob 
Anderson photographed.  (Not a Gyr or a lapwing but only the third I've seen in 
the 
state!)

There is very good news: the Nature Conservancy has purchased the Riverside 
Farm near Townsend.  This estate is rather large (500 acres) and typically 
hosts more than 20 species of waterfowl through the winter.  We have had 
moorhens 
and King Rails in the largest pond over the years, Northern Goshawk and 
Ash-throated Flycatcher next to the house, and species such as marsh sparrows 
and 
wrens, Sora, and Virginia Rail appear to be regular in the property's extensive 
salt marshes, but the owner, John Bull Sr., had not been willing to grant 
access to CBC counters and others in recent years.  Perhaps with this great 
breakthrough we'll be able to gain at least partial access.  (For the 
uninitiated, 
this is the second farm on your right as you go north from the Eastern Shore of 
Virginia NWR on the Seaside Road (Rte 600); the first farm is the T. Hume 
Dixon III farm, where the Mountain Bluebird was found this past November.  To 
the 
north of Riverview is the Mockhorn Island NWR.)  The Conservancy plans to 
hand the land over to the government for wildlife management at some point in 
the 
future.

In a blizzard such as this evening's, one clings to signs of spring, even 
hoards the slightest changes in season, sometimes to the point of 
self-delusion.  
The Eastern Shore is still leafless when Virginia Beach begins blooming in 
late March; even Richmond is two weeks ahead of us.  Two months ago, in early 
January, the lengthening days were welcome (and there was that nice warm 
spell); 
on the Bay's beaches, the occasional shed scapular of a Long-tailed Duck 
indicated that one of that species' many molts was underway - still, not quite 
plausibly spring.  I never believe the frogs - peepers especially. They get 
excited by any cheap thaw but then clam up again for months.  But the 
shorebirds 
were getting more restless by mid-February, wheeling in unison over muddy farm 
fields, snipe turned up in ditches where none had been in January, and the 
first few of the Forster's Terns returned from ... Virginia Beach?  Not all 
that 
far away.  Woodcocks twittered on warm nights, but most of these disappeared to 
the north on the first break in the cold; few apparently nest in the southern 
extreme of the county.  Common Loons always start to call more frequently by 
late February from the harbor, especially if someone drops a fifty-ton block 
over at the concrete factory, rattling windows and causing a tremulous tremolo 
in the regulars there.  My neighbor up the county, George Savage, brought by a 
window-killed Yellow Palm Warbler 20 February, just about in breeding 
plumage, with rusty cap almost fully in - still closer to spring.  Flickers are 
suddenly more numerous, Yellow-rumped Warblers more fidgety; small indices of 
lengthening days.  Bluebirds make half-hearted checks of nest-boxes.

But it was last evening that spring came - nothing so obvious as a Laughing 
Gull laughing over the beach, or an armada of Chimney Swifts - it was a string 
of 22 Tundra Swans, war cries bugling over the Bay, that brought me outdoors 
just before dusk to witness the first credible marker of the season's change, 
for me at least.  Through the night, past 1:30 a.m., they whooped as they 
passed over the house by the hundreds.  Because this experience on a cold 
November 
night always means that winter has arrived, I accept their northward push as a 
worthy token of better days ahead.  Snow or no snow.

At the CBBT today, flocks of Snow Geese moved over, a few blues with them, 
Red-throated Loons moved into the mouth of the Bay in wide, loose airborne 
assemblages, and Red-breasted Mergansers seemed to be pushing to the north on 
the 
ocean side.  An adult Peregrine, probably a male, hunkered on the light post 
south of Island 3, and small flocks of scoters and scaup dotted the islands' 
edges, fewer than in recent weeks.  A Red-necked Grebe bobbed in Fisherman 
Inlet, 
where one has been present for several weeks.  But still all the birds of 
winter out there.  Can't wait for that black-headed Laughing Gull.

Ned Brinkley
Cape Charles, VA


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