FreeLists / va-bird / [va-bird] Craney Island: eared grebes, lesser black-backed gulls

[Dan Cristol <dacris@xxxxxx>]

Sunday morning at Craney Island Landfill there were some new arrivals 
and many shorebirds gone.  Approximately 75 ruddy ducks and a pair of 
American wigeon have been added to the large (~1000) duck flock that 
has been building for about a month.  Four adult and 2 second-year 
lesser-black-backed gulls were among the ever increasing flock of 
herring and great black-backeds on the east side of the northern cell. 
There are now 3 dunlin instead of one, and 3 western sandpipers have 
joined the shrinking flocks of semipalmated and least sandpipers.  The 
30 avocets are still present in the southern cell.  Shorebird diversity 
and numbers were way down from Thursday, with only 5 stilt, 2 
white-rumped, 30 semipalmated, and 5 least sandpipers, 20 sanderling, 3 
dunlin, 10 semipalmated plover, 6 black-bellied plover, 2 killdeer, 2 
short-billed dowitchers, 15 lesser and 1 greater yellowlegs  and the 
avocets present.  The productive pool at the southeast corner has been 
pumped dry.  There were two eared/horned grebes, immature, in the 
middle cell, at a great distance today.  It is very likely that these 
are the two eared grebes seen in the same location on Tuesday (studied 
closely and photographed), but today they were not at an identifiable 
distance.  The phalaropes appear to be gone after more than a month on 
the site.



Daniel A. Cristol, Associate Professor
Department of Biology
College of William & Mary
PO Box 8795, Williamsburg, VA
(757) 221-2405/6483 (tel/fax)
dacris@xxxxxx
http://dacris.people.wm.edu/

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