[va-bird] Kiptopeke Aug. 30 - Sep. 2

[Henry Armistead <74077.3176@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Cape Charles-Kiptopeke, Northampton County, VA.  August 30-September 2,
2003.  Liz and Harry Armistead.

Abbreviations:  BWSBR, Best Western Sunset Beach Resort (nee America
House);  ESVNWR, Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge;  KSP,
Kiptopeke State Park.

Arrived late Friday night, Aug. 29.  Mars is very bright to the southeast
but even with an excellent 32X scope we can't see any features other than
it is a bright disk, the right side in darkness.  

Morning counts of bird flights done each day from c. 6:10 - 8:10 A.M. along
the bluff overlooking Chesapeake Bay in back of BWSBR.  I have done these
19 of the past 20 years over Labor Day Weekend.  For several years now the
numbers of pelicans and cormorants has been falling off.  Fish Crows and
Cattle Egrets, formerly seen by the hundreds, are now practically
non-existent.  This year the weather was unfavorable for big landbird
flights.  The 4 numbers represent birds seen on each of the 4 days we were
here.  x = species seen but numbers not counted.

Brown Pelican:  27, 80, 105, 57. 
Double-crested Cormorant:  275, 140, 205, 265.  
Great Blue Heron:  8, 2, 2, 7. 
Cattle Egret:  0, 0, 0, 0.
Glossy Ibis:  2, 0, 0, 0. 
Canada Goose:  29, 87, 81, 24. 
Osprey:  8, 2, 6, 6.
Red Knot:  0, 5 (unusual here), 0 , 0.
Royal Tern:  27, 5, 10, 38. 
Caspian Tern:  0, 2, 2, 0.
Ruby-throated Hummingbird:  2, 1, 2, 4.
Chimney Swift:  2, x, x, 9.
Eastern Kingbird:  355, 10, 63, 91.
Purple Martin:  3, x, x, x.
Barn Swallow:  65, 3, x, 133. 
Fish Crow:  9, 1, 1, 2.
American Robin:  6, 18, 45, 0. 
Cedar Waxwing, 0, 0, 4, 0  
warbler, unidentified (birds in flight over "the gap"):2, 11, 18, 4. 
Baltimore Oriole:  2, 3, 0, 1. 
Bobolink:  240, 0, 200, 247.

To put this in perspective, on some days over Labor Day Weekend in previous
years I have counted 1000+ Fish Crows, 1000+ cormorants, 400 or 500
pelicans, 200+ Baltimore Orioles, 2000+ kingbirds, 1000+ warblers, hundreds
of Cattle Egrets, thousands of Bobolinks, and so on.  

However, in partial compensation this year there were the best Barn Swallow
and martin flights I've seen.  Barn Swallows passed in a steady stream all
day on Aug. 30; based on sample counts I estimated c. 9,636 total.  Based
on other sample counts I estimated c. 1,800 Purple Martins on Sept. 1.  A
Diamondback Terrapin was in the surf of of BWSBR Aug. 30.

Aug. 30, ESVNWR, dusk watch at end of Ramp Lane, 6:15-8 P.M.  1 Gadwall, 6
Blue-winged Teal, 12 Clapper Rails, 7 Seaside Sparrows, 18 White Ibis (all
immatures), 66 kingbirds, 360 Brown Pelicans (massed off the east end of
Fisherman's Island), 45 Boat-tailed Grackles, 2 Bald Eagles, and smaller
than usual numbers of 7 heron species plus 2 Glossy Ibis.  We saw a
hummingbird chasing a kingbird here.

Aug. 31.  Overcast with NE winds, almost cool.  3 Gull-billed Terns at
K.S.P., 5 hawking insects over a soy bean field along Rt. 600 n. of
Townsend (c. 1 mile s. of Rts. 643 X 600), and 2 over the saltmarsh at
Oyster.  Make wonderful, graceful swoops when they dive low over the bean
plants to seize bugs.  Liz counted 310 Bobolinks from the hawkwatch
platform at KSP, 10:15 A.M. to c. Noon.  Finally I broke the jinx and we
had great views of a Eurasian Collared Dove near Rt. 600 X 645.  At Oyster
there were 28 Marbled Godwits far out on the flats plus small numbers of
Black-bellied Plovers, Willets, oystercatchers, dowitchers, peep,
Semipalmated Plovers, and 65 Black Skimmers.  The "shell road" here is now
quite overgrown but most of the way out to the vantage point at the end can
be traversed on packed clam shells at the upper part of the saltmarsh.

Sep. 1.  Saw a hummingbird chasing a Bank Swallow.  At K.S.P. c. 230
kingbirds from 10 A.M. - 2 P.M.    

On each day Aug. 30-Sep. 1 Northern Bobwhite were still "singing", late in
the year for that. 

Bob Ake said he found 24 butterfly species in a short period of time on
Sep. 1 around the KSP butterfly garden and vicinity.  We had excellent
views of American and Painted ladies on Sep. 2.  

Deniz Aygen, hawk trapper for the past few years and now a graduate student
at the U. of North Carolina-Wilmington, said the season total for banded
Royal Tern chicks at Fisherman's Island was 1,133 plus 2 Sandwich Terns. 
Her thesis is to be on royals.

The fall season is underway at Kiptopeke.  Birds have been slow but the
Coastal Virginia Wildlife Observatory and William & Mary people are ready. 
An Eric X. will be trapping hawks.  Jennifer Ottinger is counting them. 
Jethro Runco is back to band songbirds by the thousands (he tagged a
Louisiana Waterthrush on Monday, a rarity at this station).  Monarch
studies will be going on.  Zach Smith (last year's hawk counter at K.S.P.)
will be hawk trapping at Wise Point on ESVNWR, a William & Mary project. 
Folks will be doing radar bird migrant studies under the auspices of
William and Mary and later on will be banding numbers of the world's cutest
bird, saw-whet owl (it might be a flight year).  

Stay away from the 11th annual Eastern Shore Birding Festival (October 3, 4
& 5) if you can't stand days of 30+ peregrines, 50+ Merlins.  It gets to
me, too, and if there are 100 or more peregrines and Merlins it is REALLY
hard to take.  Photographer extraordinaire Kevin Karlson will be the
keynote speaker. 

Anyone interested in the lore and history of the Virginia Eastern Shore
would do well to purchase "The Eastern Shore of Virginia Chamber of
Commerce, Fifty Years of Service, 1953-2003", published by and available
from the CofC in Melfa in their attractive brick building on the west side
of Rt. 13.  (P.O. Box 460, Melfa, VA 23410).  757-787-2460.  fax
757-787-8687.  esvachamber@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  At $20 it is modestly priced. 
Also, contact the CofC if you're interested in the birding festival.  

I'm not that much of a Chamber of Commerce kind of guy but their book has
lovely mood photographs of historical themes, the people, old houses,
scenic shots, etc.  They have been very supportive of birding and the
birding festival.  There are photographs of people in there some of you
know:  Gary Williamson, Karen Terwilliger, Mary Arginteanu, Earl Hodnett,
Tony Quezon, John Dillard, Ray Haynie (formerly manager of Sting-Ray's,
past President of the Chamber, etc.), wildlife sculptor David Turner, et
al.  9 pages are devoted to the birding festival.  To their credit the CofC
does not shrink from discussing problems:  the decline of seafood
resources, erosion, storm, and hurricane destruction, the decrease in
farming acreage, and the challenges of fostering tasteful development and
keeping the Eastern Shore the way it is.   

Best to all.-Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA
19119-1225.  215-248-4120.  Please, any off-list replies to: 
harryarmistead@xxxxxxxxxxx
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[va-bird] Kiptopeke Aug. 30 - Sep. 2