FreeLists / va-bird / [va-bird] Southeast Expeditions Kiptopeke Challenge Results

[BlkVulture@xxxxxxx]

Greetings,
Just now getting my first chance to get caught up on the past weekend, having 
spent a few days on the Eastern Shore.  

Myself and three teammates competed in the twenty-four hour category of the 
Kiptopeke Challenge on 27 September.  Sue Heath, Mike Stinson, and George 
Armistead (who filled in for an unavailable Ian Topolsky) rounded out the 
team.  We 
started the day by waking up at two AM, birding by two-thirty, and finished 
at around eight PM.  We drove 258 miles, from as far south as the Chesapeake 
Bay Bridge-Tunnel Island number three (CBBT 3), to Chincoteague in the north.  
We managed to find 121 bird species, with four of them not being seen by 
everyone on the team, but countable as they were seen by at least two members.  
The 
complete species list will follow this summary. 

Scouting and The Route.  

Being newcomers to this event, we didn't bring with us a tried and true route 
to follow.  So on Friday George and I did some scouting in the morning, and I 
met up with Sue early afternoon to do some more.  George and I hit the 
Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge (ESVNWR), Sunset Beach, CBBT 
3, 
and a couple other spots before splitting up.  George then covered some of his 
reliable migration spots and the landfill, while I bounced around route 600 
looking for good patches of habitat for either songbirds or shorebirds.  When I 
met Sue in Machipongo, we went straight to Chincoteague, though we did drive 
route 600 a bit as well.  

From the scouting we came away with the impression that Saturday was going to 
be tough birding.  Very few migrants were about, and the shorebird habitat at 
Chincoteague was terrible.  Short of one decent spot on the east side of Swan 
Cove, there was little hope for good numbers of shorebirds up north.  The 
tidal marsh along the causeway out to Chincoteague Island looked good for some 
birds, but we didn't spend much time scouting it.  

Typically it seems best to start the Challenge at the tip of the peninsula, 
and end at Chincoteague, and I think that's the route of most teams.  We had a 
south-north route planned, when Friday night at ten-thirty PM in room 36 of 
The Peacock Motor Inn, three of us started seriously considering doing the 
reverse.  Sue was wisely trying to get some sleep.  The three of us knew by 
standing outside the motel that there wasn't much of a flight going on.  We 
heard 
zero overhead flight calls.  We knew that the tide favored being at 
Chincoteague 
while it was high (somewhere around nine AM Saturday), and Oyster was best 
done within a couple hours of low tide (somewhere around two or three in the 
afternoon).  We knew that the CBBT Walk-Bike event was scheduled for Saturday, 
and 
that it might be easier to bird Island Three later in the day (when the light 
is better as well, though earlier would be better for passerines after a good 
flight).  We thought that the Woodland Trail at Chincoteague could produce as 
many lingering migrants as working the southern tip of the peninsula would.  
Lastly, we thought that being at Ramp Lane at ESVNWR at dusk was as good as 
being there at dawn.  With those ideas in our heads, we planned a loose route 
that had us at Chincoteague at dawn, and ending at Ramp Lane and covering a 
whole bunch of ground in between.  Loose may not be the best word to describe 
it, 
as the schedule was just a list of places we wanted to visit, and no times 
penciled in.  This also meant that we needed to overhaul our predawn route as 
well, which we did.  Our expectations for the day were low, not having had the 
chance to scout as much as we'd have liked and not having a great plan.  We 
thought it would be worthwhile trying a north-south route, if for no other 
reason 
than to compare to the more traditional route.  

So two AM comes, we sluggishly arise, and get driving by two-thirty, 
perfectly on schedule, which since there wasn't much of one, we managed to stay 
on 
schedule all day.  First stop was Ramp Lane for rails, owls, and anything else 
that might make some noise.  Never a good way to start a day a big day, we had 
nothing.  We then hit another spot on the refuge for owls, and were unable to 
entice a Screech-Owl to call.  Things were really looking good at this point.  
Two stops, and no birds.  Luckily though we heard a Great Horned Owl calling 
as we walked back to the car, and then a Great Blue Heron.  From ESVNWR we 
headed to a spot in Cape Charles for Screech-Owl, which we got quickly, and 
then 
to a spot in Machipongo where George and I had had Barred Owl in January of 
2002.  Now that's a can't-miss if ever there was one.  So after twenty minutes 
we 
missed it and headed to Saxis.  While not dejected, we weren't buzzing at 
this point either.  We had three birds, but one of the longshots didn't 
produce.  


Saxis was another story though.  When we got out of the car, it was quite 
dark, a bit foggy, but otherwise still and mostly silent.  I think the first 
bird 
we got at Saxis was Clapper Rail, but the nice surprise was that there was a 
small migrant passerine flight.  We were able to hear calling Veery, 
Swainson's Thrush, and Gray-cheeked Thrush, as well as a handful of 
unidentified 
warbler-type calls.  We also picked up a Virginia Rail as the first hint of 
violet 
was appearing in the east.  Another bird was calling there, seemingly an owl or 
maybe a raptor, but we never quite figured it out.  

After the drive to the east and some wholesome food at McDonald's and picking 
up some expected stuff from the car, dawn found us Chincoteague, as the sun 
was rising as we were looking into it at Black Duck Marsh.  Sue and I had 
scouted a Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler, Blue- and Green-winged Teal, 
Black 
Duck, Gadwall, and Mallard at this spot, and we got all of them.  Some 
seawatching seemed like a good idea, so we headed to the beach with a check of 
the 
eastern edge of Swan Cove.  A productive spot, picking up American Avocet, a 
bird 
not seen by us on Friday.  We also found a Short-billed Dowitcher among the 
Willet flock, and the terns were cooperative, producing Caspian, Royal, 
Forster's, Sandwich as well as scores of skimmers.  We also found a 
Black-crowned 
Night-Heron roosting.  We had the expected gulls here, plus Sanderling on the 
beach.  However, we didn't pick any gems off of the ocean or sailing by heading 
south.  We were truly hoping for a scoter, loon, jaeger, something unexpected.  
As we headed back toward the Woodland Trail, we knew vaguely of a Common Loon 
reported from Tom's Cove, so we gave it a check and found one.  As we drove 
by Swan Cove, George thought it looked good for a Ruddy Duck (which Sue and I 
had a vague notion there was one reported somewhere), and we promptly found the 
Ruddy.  Two pretty good birds.  Next up was the Woodland Trail, which was 
supposed to be the ace in the hole for this event.  Having been good to Mike 
and 
Ned Brinkley in the past on days when there wasn't much flight, we thought we 
could go in and find a few flocks of warblers and such.  It only took a few 
steps into the woods when we lowered our expectations.  We were now hoping to 
come out of it with a Pine Warlber and Brown-headed Nuthatch, anything else 
would be cake.  There was also an awful mosquito nuisance in there.  I'm not 
one 
usually bothered much by biting insects, but this was truly annoying.  I would 
look at George's back, and chuckle that he had about 20 mosquitoes perched 
there, biting him.  Then I realized my back probably looked the same, which was 
confirmed when I swiped it and had a few carcasses on my hands.  I left with my 
hands bloody from killing the little pests.  

As for birds, simply put it was a struggle in there.  We pished and whistled 
and were met with a lot of silence, plus the expected Carolina Wrens and 
Chickadees, and some Brown-headed Nuthatches, a single Pine Warbler and such.  
We 
did get lucky a few times during the hour spent in there, but not the gold we 
were hoping for.  We managed to find a Baltimore Oriole, Common Yellowthroat, 
Ovenbird, Black-and-white Warbler, Blue Grosbeak, Great Crested Flycatcher, and 
House Wren.  In hindsight, it was a nice haul in there, however, we left at 
the time thinking we were going to really struggle to get to 100.  

After leaving the refuge we checked a couple spots on Chincoteague Island for 
odds-and-ends, picking up Wood Duck, Oystercatcher, Black-bellied Plover and 
a couple other birds.  It was a bit after ten AM, and time to head south.  

We arrived at the first spot back in Northampton County that we wanted to 
check, and managed to squeeze out a few new birds.  Magnolia Warbler, American 
Redstart, Red-eyed Vireo, Tufted Titmouse, Hairy Woodpecker, Eastern Kingbird, 
Red-tailed Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, Broad-winged Hawk, and a couple other 
more expected birds were found at the first stop.  Next we headed to the 
Northampton County Landfill where George had found two Lesser Black-backed 
Gulls on 
Friday, as well as a few Cattle Egrets.  When we arrived, we were unable to 
locate the LBB Gulls, but did find Cattle Egrets, maybe fifteen of them.  Also 
new 
for the day here was a Least Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper, Peregrine Falcon, 
Savannah Sparrow, Fish Crow, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Northern Parula, and 
Yellow Warbler.  

Oyster was next on the list, and it seemed a good time to do it.  The tide 
should have been low enough to have birds, as it was about two-thirty PM.  
Oyster helped quite a bit, and we probably notched our 100th bird there.  We 
picked 
up Marbled Godwit, Semipalmated Sandpiper, and a late Gull-billed Tern.  The 
Marbled Godwit made it easy to skip checking Willis Wharf, so we headed south 
instead.  We checked the reliable Eurasian Collared-Dove spot along 600, but 
dipped there.  We did manage to find a Black-throated Blue Warbler in a garden 
while awaiting the dove.  Next we hit a few spots on the west side of US 13, 
some of the locations George had scouted for migrant songbirds.  We didn't pick 
up much here, except for an overdue Merlin.  The wind had picked up quite a 
bit, and we could see the handwriting on the wall telling us that it just 
wasn't a migrant sort of day.  The best bird we found here was a Solitary 
Sandpiper 
near Lake Maddux.  

We wanted to get out to the CBBT and check for some early wintering birds, 
and do some more seawatching.  Before we did we thought it might be a good idea 
to see if the American Wigeon that was seen on Friday was still on the pond at 
Ramp Lane, in case we got carried away on the CBBT and returned too late to 
see it.  The wigeon was indeed there, but that was about it.  We headed out to 
the CBBT, cleaning up Barn Swallow at the pulloff at before Fisherman Island.  
We also got Common Tern in route.  We checked the limited grassy margins for 
birds on the island, and then checked the rocks below.  Zippy.  Nothing 
happening.  We worked the tern flock feeding in the channel and crossed our 
fingers 
for a jaeger, but it didn't materialize.  About the time we were thinking of a 
new plan George picked out a Lesser Black-backed Gull flying straight toward 
us.  

There was still some good daylight left, and we were missing a serious amount 
of resident birds and thought maybe we'd do well to try the Collared-Dove 
spot again, and might find something we were missing.  As we turned east onto 
Route 600, two Bobwhites ran across the road in front of us, and we were able 
to 
clean up an unshared bird with two Indigo Buntings.  The Collared-Dove again 
failed to show, so we headed to Ramp Lane for dusk.  It turned out to be a 
solid plan, as we managed to get sixteen White Ibis, and witnessed a fine 
Night-Heron flight, including ten or so Yellow-crowneds, which was new for the 
day.  
We wrapped up as it got too dark to see, and decided that food and drink was a 
better way to spend the next hour or so than trying to find a Barred Owl.  

Big Days often produce a list of misses that are worth a chuckle, and 
Saturday was no different. We missed American Goldfinch, Horned Lark, Pilieated 
Woodpecker, Chimney Swift (all four of those I saw on Sunday), Cedar Waxwing 
(Mike 
actually saw a flock of these, but we couldn't count them as he was the only 
person to get on them), Green Heron, House Finch, Field Sparrow, Glossy Ibis 
(seen while scouting), the Collared-Dove (also found scouting), Dunlin, 
Bobolink, and White-eyed Vireo (the latter two seen Friday too).  

The list follows, unshared species are noted.  

Common Loon
Pied-billed Grebe
Brown Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Cattle Egret
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
White Ibis
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Gadwall
American Wigeon
American Black Duck
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Ruddy Duck
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Broad-winged Hawk (Armistead and Stinson only)
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Merlin
Peregrine Falcon
Northern Bobwhite
Clapper Rail
Virginia Rail 
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
American Oystercatcher
American Avocet
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Solitary Sandpiper
Willet
Spotted Sandpiper
Marbled Godwit
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Least Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Gull-billed Tern (Armistead, Stinson, and Day only)
Caspian Tern
Royal Tern
Sandwich Tern
Common Tern
Forster's Tern
Black Skimmer
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Eastern Screech-Owl
Great Horned Owl
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Yellow-shafted Flicker
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Eastern Bluebird
Veery
Gray-cheeked Thrush
Swainson's Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
European Starling
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Black-throated Blue (Heath, Armistead, and Day only)
Pine Warbler
Palm Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Ovenbird
Common Yellowthroat
Chipping Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Blue Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Boat-tailed Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird (Day and Armistead only)
Baltimore Oriole
House Sparrow

Cheers,

Todd

-------------------------------
Todd Michael Day
Jeffersonton, VA
BlkVulture@xxxxxxx
-------------------------------

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