Mark Johnson, Randy & Sue Thrasher and I birded around Kerr Dam (including Dick
Cross WMA & Palmer Point) for most of the day yesterday, Jan 20, 2007. We were
not successful in finding the Pacific Loon that has been reported there earlier
this year. There weren't a lot of loons or other water birds to be found on the
water. It was very windy and thus the water was choppy which may explain why it
was difficult for us to observe the ones that were on the lake and also may be
the reason so few were seen as they may have been hidden in sheltered coves
that we could not access.
However, we still had an interesting day of birding. We saw ten Bald Eagles
below the dam, two of which were adults. There was a male Baltimore Oriole in a
fruit tree (with several feeders and other birds around) in a yard on the road
down to Palmer Point. We also saw two Pine Warblers on the ground with a flock
of Chipping Sparrows.
At least 900 Bonaparte's, Ring-billed, and Herring Gulls were seen around the
dam. There were five Herring Gulls, the mix of Ring-billed to Bonaparte's was
very close to 50-50 (I conservatively reported the numbers of each to e-bird -
see below). There was one 'mystery' gull that we had a difficult time
identifying. The closest 'match' appears to be an adult Lesser Black-backed
Gull (larus fuscus intermedius) but there were inconsistencies, primarily its
leg color (fleshy, not pink, slightly yellow more so on bottom of feet), bill
coloring (dark base with yellow tip and stripe on top and light red dot near
the tip of the lower mandible), the lack of white on the primary tips, etc.
Randy and Mark photographed this gull and may post a photo or two. Randy and I
wrote extensive notes. I have transcribed mine and will share them offline with
anyone who might help us positively identify this bird.
The complete list of species except the mystery gull follows.
Rexanne Bruno
Lynchburg, VA
-------------------
Number of species: 43
Canada Goose X
Ring-necked Duck X
Bufflehead X
Hooded Merganser X
Common Loon X
Pied-billed Grebe X
Horned Grebe X
Double-crested Cormorant X
Great Blue Heron 3
Black Vulture X
Turkey Vulture X
Bald Eagle 10
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk X
American Kestrel X
American Coot X
Killdeer X
Bonaparte's Gull 400
Ring-billed Gull 500
Herring Gull 5
Rock Pigeon X
Red-bellied Woodpecker X
Northern Flicker X
Eastern Phoebe 1
Blue Jay X
American Crow X
Carolina Chickadee X
Tufted Titmouse X
Carolina Wren X
Eastern Bluebird X
Northern Mockingbird X
European Starling X
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
Pine Warbler 2
Eastern Towhee 2
Chipping Sparrow X
Song Sparrow X
White-throated Sparrow X
Dark-eyed Junco X
Northern Cardinal X
Eastern Meadowlark X
Baltimore Oriole 1
American Goldfinch X
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2 (http://www.ebird.org ;
<http://mail.lynchburg.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.ebird.org> )
