FreeLists / va-bird / [va-bird] Willet on the wire, etc.

[Phoebetria@xxxxxxx]

On 3 June I ran a BBS route from the tip of Wise Point to Eastville, then 
from Machipongo to Waverly manor, all in Northampton County.  I was surprised 
to 
see, not far from Townsend, a few Willets perching on power poles and even on 
the wires, apparently standing sentry over nests that were in farm fields far 
from the marshes.  This is neat behavior to see along Route 600: keep an eye 
out for wire-perching Willets this month!

Most of the route is rural agricultural and so is blessed with plenty of 
Northern Bobwhite (15 detected in 15 of 50 stops), Orchard Oriole (25/21), Blue 
Grosbeak (16/14), Indigo Bunting (39/26), and Grasshopper Sparrow (14/11).  
Scarcer birds detected included Wood Duck (2/1), Gadwall (2/1), Red-headed 
Woodpecker (2/2), Summer Tanager (6/6), Red-eyed Vireo (3/3), White-eyed Vireo 
(1/1), 
Eurasian Collared-Dove (2/1), Green Heron (3/3), Brown Thrasher (1/1), and 
Yellow-billed Cuckoo (4/4).  Warblers are few on this route: Yellow-throated 
(3/3), Pine (14/8), Prairie (1/1), Ovenbird (1/1), Yellow-breasted Chat (5/5), 
Common Yellowthroat (3/3), and a surprise, a Kentucky Warbler near Townsend 
(1/1), not a bird I see much in the county, though a pair apparently nested 
near 
Eastville in 1999.  American Crows (33) outnumbered Fish (15) about 2:1, as 
expected.  There were no Brown-headed Nuthatches detected in the Loblolly 
forest 
around Wise Point (2 were here 15 May, found by Brian Taber); the forest is 
almost completely killed here, owing to the hurricane.  

A trip to Chincoteague 1 June found little to write home about, though 
shorebirds still numbered in the hundreds - perhaps 500 Short-billed Dowitcher 
(both 
subspecies), a late Lesser Yellowlegs, about 50 Greater Yellowlegs, 15 or so 
Dunlin, hundreds of Semipalmated Sandpipers, about 55 White-rumped Sandpipers 
(a good count), 30 or so Semipalmatied Plovers, 6 or 7 Least Sandpipers, and a 
few Ruddy Turnstones and Black-bellied Plovers.  A family of Piping Plovers 
was present on the outer beach (2 adults, four newly hatched chicks), plus a sin
gle SY bird on Tom's Cove.  No White-faced Ibis among the Glossy, despite 3 
hours of looking.  Two Black-necked Stilts still on the Causeway.  Birding at 
Saxis that day and night produced only 6 Clapper and 4 Virginia Rails and one 
Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow, with about 5 hours' effort.  A male Bufflehead, 
an adult, was still at Oyster harbor that morning.  

Back on the day of the frigatebird, 23 May, I was guiding a 10-day tour 
(mostly of North Carolina) that brought us to the CBBT, where on Island 1 there 
was 
an Acadian-race Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow (which I first thought was a 
Saltmarsh, it was so plain) and about 14 Purple Sandpipers, which I have not 
seen since that date.  Very early that morning, around 0630, we saw an adult 
Mississippi Kite along 1-264 south of Victory Blvd in Portsmouth, Virginia (are 
there any other records from the city?).  As consolation for missing Ruff and 
frigatebird, we found an SY Roseate Spoonbill sitting in the midst of a huge 
mass of feeding herons and egrets at Bodie Island, NC the next day, my first 
for 
North Carolina.  It has apparently departed, so keep an eye out for it at Back 
Bay!

In other news of Carolina, Brian Patteson's crew out of Manteo this week 
found a Black-bellied Storm-Petrel (see his website at www.patteson.com for a 
photo), new for North America.

Ned Brinkley
Cape Charles, VA
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