FreeLists / va-bird / [va-bird] Glossy Ibis at K's Pond -- Departed?

[JMIrvine@xxxxxxx]

The Glossy Ibis at K's Pond on Lynnwood Road near Grottoes in Rockingham  
County has been present there at least since Wednesday, July 26th, and was seen 
 
by many observers.  Several have been kind enough to place copies  of 
photographs they have taken of this first-county-record bird (and also  
accompanying 
Soras) on the listservs.
 
Richard Schiemann, formerly of Harrisonburg, has been staying with me over  
the weekend, since he had driven here from his new home in Ohio to go  on the 
Dismal Swamp Butterfly Census on Saturday.  Friday morning we  went by and 
viewed the bird, which was a lifer for him and which he  photographed.  Sunday 
on 
our trip home from Suffolk we stopped by the  pond in the afternoon and the 
bird was still there.  This morning  before leaving for Ohio he drove by the 
pond hoping to get some better  lit photographs of it.  He called me to say 
that 
the morning fog was  beginning to lift and he could see to the back of the 
pond but not into the  reeds very well.  The Ibis, which has always been out in 
the open every  time I had seen it, was nowhere in evidence.  All he saw were 
four Killdeer  and a single Solitary Sandpiper.  So this is not necessarily 
final word of  its departure, but it is possible that, stuffed with the pond's 
abundant  mudworms, it finally lifted off on its journey southward sometime  
overnight. If I hear of contrary evidence I will post it.
 
John Irvine
Harrisonburg, VA