Dear All
I spent the last week on a fimaly holiday based in the Wildcat Lane area of
northern Chincoteague Island, birding that area and getting onto Assateague too
on most days. I did try to post to VA-bird during the week but the computer I
was using wouldn't connect so sorry for the late postings. I have done a
summary of what was a very interesting week for me, a British birder rookie to
the east cost in autumn.
The headline good species were Bicknell's Thrush (16th Oct only),
Orange-crowned Warbler, 8 Parasitic Jaegers, Lesser Black-backed Gull,
White-winged Scoter, Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow, American Pipit and Ipswich
Sparrow, plus spectacular movements of Yellow-rumped Warblers, Tree Swallows,
Laughing Gulls and Double-crested Cormorants.
15th Oct: lots of Yellow-rumps in evidence in the Wildcat area plus Pine and
Parula Warblers late afternoon..
16th: many Yellow-rumps calling overhead pre-dawn and numbers clearly up with
a bump overnight. A not very scientific attempt at estimating numbers using
three 50m belt transects estimated 24-52 birds per hectare ie roughly 2 - 5,000
Yellow-rumps in the one sq km area of homogenous habitat in the Wildcat Lane
area.
The morning arrival brought some fine birds to northern Chincoteague including
an Orange-crowned Warbler and, to my initial puzzlement, a Catharus thrush that
I eventually identified as Bicknell's, seen at length and very obliging (I have
full notes and will submit this for review if someone would advise on the
process off list - thanks). Also Winter Wren and many thousands of Tree
Swallows too.
An afternoon visit to the Swan Cove and beach area yielded a nice selection of
waders, skimmers and terns - two Black Terns being the only birds of note -
plus to my surprise two adult pale phase Parasitic Jaegers harrassing the terns
offshore.
17th: the strong easterly sent me to the beach for an hours seawatch before
the rain set in. This yielded six more Parasitic Jaegers - all first winter
birds - plus a big movement of Laughing Gulls on the sea at least 5,000 past in
45 minutes. Rain then stopped play and birds moved again on 19th.
19th: a big day for Yellow-rumps. The beach area was so awash with birds it
was difficult to sort through them. An hour of warbler watching in the Swan
Cove Visitors Centre area left me with one Nashville Warbler and a headache. A
transect off the boardwalk there yielded 172 Yellow-rumps in a 50m long 20 m
wide searched strip (!). Finds of the day for me were the 'salty' sparrows.
Firstly, a Saltmarsh Sharpie on the Assateague causeway at dawn (but no rails -
shame), then two more at Swan Cove plus a very skulking Seaside Sparrow there.
And finally to my surprise a really nice Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow with two
more Saltmarsh Sharpies in the marsh at the seaward end of the Swan Cove board
walk. I even managed to get a few bad photos of this little crippler.
I then met Richard Roberts banding birds near the Woodland trail. He too was
buried in Yellow-rumps but had also caught Black & White Warbler plus
Yellow-breasted Chat so he was looking pretty happy. I popped back later in
the day with my family and he was still banding away... We then went down to
the beach where Surf Scoters were moving and one close in flock held a single
male White-winged Scoter. There were also many Monarchs moving too.
20th: a strong wind picked up before I could get out in the morning and it was
only in the late afternoon that I managed to see some birds. Bizarrely this
was the best spell for raptors with a patch of about 20 minutes when I saw ten
each of Ospreys and Peregrines (including four together), several Sharpies and
Cooper's and one of three Merlins seen during the course of the week.
21st: with a north-westerly wind I was hoping for more volume of migration but
the morning was a clear-out of the Yellow-rumps with a few new birds in. Swan
Cove held both kinglets, a small group of juncos, Winter Wren and two Hermit
Thrushes, and walk in the dunes turned up three American Pipits, a small group
of Ipswich Sparrows and a single third year Lesser-black Backed Gull on the
beach. The Woodland Trail held a Blue-headed Vireo plus lots of common
sparrows. A group of 600 Snow Geese dropped in to the wildlife loop for a late
afternoon wash and brush up.
22nd: I thought that my birding week had ended on the Saturday but due to a
two week old baby not sleeping at 5am I ended up driving around with him in the
car seat to get him to rest. This ruse actually worked so I got to see the
Orionids meteor shower from the causeway onto Assateague from 5.30am and -
eurika - I finally got a Clapper Rail to oblige by standing around in the early
morning light in an open ditch. A nice end to what has been a great week.
Good birding
Gary Allport
GAllport@xxxxxxxxxxx
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