FreeLists / va-bird / [va-bird] black terns and lark sparrow in King William Co

[Frederick Atwood <fredatwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

Howdy!
It was a good day. 8-D
With all the reports of golden plovers, baird's
sandpipers, and buff-breasted sandpipers around I
thought I'd check out some of my favorite spots
in King William Co and Westmoreland Co to see if
I could find any of these exciting species in the
Middle Peninsula or Northern Neck.  I checked two
sod farms in King William as well as any mowed
lawns, pond shores, or plowed fields in the area.
 Most of the fields are still covered with corn
or soybeans. The Pamunkey River levels were so
high that I saw no shoreline there at the Pocket
(Pamunkey Indian Reservation) or across the way
in a private wildlife reserve.  Here are the best
birds that I found in King William County between
8:30 AM and 12:30 PM Sept 6.

@ The Pocket (Powhatan's gravesite at the
Pamunkey River, Pamunkey Indian reservation)
3 black tern (my first for VA)
15 Forster's tern
20 Laughing Gull
16 Great Egret
4 Great Blue Heron
2 Osprey (but no eagles, which is a surprise)
2 blue-winged teal
10 Black Duck

@ the sod farm off of Walkerton Rd
1 pectoral sandpiper
1 least sandpiper
7 killdeer
2 meadowlark

@ sod farm on Horse Landing Rd
3 killdeer only

While driving to the sod farms from the Pocket
along the Powhatan Trail through some corn
fields, a large sparrow with a striking tail
pattern flew up from the side of the road.  Outer
tail feathers AND end of tail were white.  I
slammed on the breaks and pulled over. After
squeaking and pishing, a lark sparrow (my first
in VA) flew up onto the power line above the corn
showing its distinctive head and breast then
dashed back down into the corn.  Also a vesper
sparrow, 3 blue grosbeak, and 6 indigo buntings
emerged from the corn at this spot.  The location
is hard to describe. If you are coming from route
30 on Powhatan Trail(633) it was in a large corn
field on the left about 1/2 - 2/3 of the way
between 621 (on the right) and 626 (on the left).
 There are woods on the right side of the road,
not corn, and no houses are visible.  Be careful
because local traffic moves pretty quickly along
this curvy road. 

At noon in a nice patch of large oaks, hickories,
and beeches surrounded by farmland in King
William County I also ran across an exciting
mixed-species flock that included many migrants.
Here are the birds in that flock.
5 tufted titmouse
2 carolina chickadee
2 tennessee warbler
2 yellow-throated warbler
1 blackburnian warbler
1 yellow warbler
1 blue-winged warbler
4 black-and-white warbler
1 chestnut-sided warbler
3 american redstart
1 blackpoll warbler
9 red-eyed vireo
2 yellow-throated vireo
1 summer tanager
3 blue-gray gnatcatcher
2 wood pewee
1 empidonax sp.
4 red-bellied woodpecker
2 hairy woodpecker
3 downy woodpecker
3 carolina wren

Other birds seen along the way:
2 red-tailed hawk
2 red-shouldered hawk
1 kestrel
400 tree swallow
10 purple martin
10 rough-winged swallow
15 barn swallow
3 bank swallow
15 chipping sparrows
6 bobolink
80 cowbird
10 indigo bunting
6 blue grosbeak
1 mallard (Yikes! not many ducks)

PS At the Tappahannock bridge over the
Rappahannock (Essex/Richmond Co boundary) there
were 45 Forster's terns, 65 laughing gulls, 10
ring-billed gulls, 1 herring gull, 4 royal tern,
and 4 double-crested cormorant

=====
Frederick D. Atwood     fredatwood@xxxxxxxxx
Flint Hill School, 10409 Academic Dr, Oakton, VA 22124
703-242-1675     
http://www.agpix.com/fredatwood
http://www.flinthill.org

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