FreeLists / va-richmond-general / [va-richmond-general] Richmond area 3/22/08 highlights

["Lee Adams" <ladams42@xxxxxxx>]

I started yesterday at Robious Landing Park with Richmond Audubon. 
Wendy E. led a great trip. The highlights for me were the plentiful 
number of Red-headed Woodpeckers, and seeing Pileated Woodpeckers at a 
nest hole. Spring Beauties and violets were bursting forth.
I spent the afternoon at Henricus. I echo a previous post about the 
greening of the marsh there. The lone coot I'd seen the last time has 
been joined by three more. The pair of Pileated Woodpeckers appeared 
as if on cue. A Hairy Woodpecker thumped a tree near a Yellow-bellied 
Sapsucker. Zebra Swallowtails and Falcate Orangetips zipped about. On 
the flats across from the floating dock a dozen Laughing Gulls with 
black heads were the first I've seen this year.
Walking the trail behind the visitor center I saw a pair of Brown 
Thrashers, a Brown Creeper, and the only view of one of the half dozen 
Yellow-throated Warblers I heard. At the end of the trail I took I had 
a distant view of a Heron rookery. Several trees nearby were filled 
with Double-crested Cormorants.
As a squall-line approached I walked the pipeline by the river in 
downtown Richmond to view the Heron rookery there. Cormorants and 
kayakers were riding the rapids as a pair of Black Ducks took a nap. 
Several times a Great Blue Heron flew in with a stick to add to a 
nest.
I finished the day owling out in Powhatan. The full moon lent a 
romantic touch but no owls cooperated. I was happy to slip into bed 
back in Fredericksburg at 3:30 this morning.
Lee Loudenslager Adams
Fredericksburg, VA
ladams42@xxxxxxx 

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