[va-bird] California Gull and other neat stuff in NNK

Great Day birding King George and Westmoreland
COunties today, Saturday Feb 17: King George
ponds, Toby's Point (RapRivValNWR), Washington's
Birthplace National Monument, Currioman Landing
(near Montross),and Leedstown.  

Today was a day full of wonderful sounds, from
the squeaks, cracks, creaks, tinkles, clacks,
whines, and clatters of ice being dragged along
the shoreline of the Rappahannock R at Toby's
Point, and the bonging sound of frozen lake ice,
to the delightful flight-display song of horned
larks, the near constant honks and trumpets of
geese and swans, a whole variety of duck noises
(growling mergansers, toot-whistles of displaying
drake mallards, laugh-quacks of female mallards,
chattering gabbling of socializing mallard
flocks, guttural gadwall quacks, whistles of
wigeons, squishing eating noises as gadwalls
filter-feed, and the constant splashing sounds of
hundreds of canvasbacks diving and popping back
up in the little bit of open water at Currioman
Bay), and finally ending with the wing whistles,
chirping twitters, and buzzy, nasal peents of
three displaying woodcocks.  If it weren't for
the thundering rumbles of artillery fire off and
on all day at Fort AP Hill miles away I would
have thought I was delightfully alone in the
wilderness. 

SInce most of the still water was frozen, an
amazing conglomeration of waterfowl were
concentrated in a few places: two of the KG
Ponds, selected spots in the Rappahannock and
Potomac, Pope's Creek at Washington's Birthplace,
about a half acre of open water in Currioman Bay,
and a couple shallow marsh-ponds in Leedstown
(why they weren't frozen I don't know.)


Highlights were: 
California Gull (first winter) on the ice at KG
Ponds (my first for Virginia)
Lesser Black-backed Gull (adult) on a sand bar at
Currioman Bay (my first for Westmoreland Co)
Lots of Redheads (These seem to be turning up
everywhere this weekend)
Lots of Tundra Swans (can't ever get tired of
them)
3 Cackling Geese
80 white-crowned sparrow, more than I have ever
seen in one location (Leedstown)
wonderful hooded merganser displays
a merlin

Here are some more details by location, in order
of when they were visited: 
KING GEORGE PONDS:  All the ponds frozen except a
little open water at two ponds
2 Tundra Swan
715 Canada Goose
2 Cackling Goose (very cute)
8 Redheads
184 Canvasbacks
320 ring-necked ducks
120 lesser scaup
32 american wigeon
18 mallard
20 gadwall
26 shoveler 
23 bufflehead 
105 ruddy duck 
140 hooded merganser lots of chasing and
displaying
2 red-breasted merganser
7 pied-billed grebe
70 coot
1 merlin
2 ad 1 imm bald eagle
6 red-tailed hawk
1 red-shouldered hawk
30 savannah sparrows
2 horned lark
1 american pipit
250 ring-billed gulls
3 herring gulls
1 california gull (first winter) it stayed for
about 15 minutes for me to watch with scope; then
it took off with some ring-billed gulls. 

TOBY'S POINT (King George County)
1 winter wren
3 hermit thrush
6 adult, 15 immature bald eagles: perched on ice
chunks, eating fish stuck on ice and on shore,
perched on nest and in trees.
160 common merganser
20 hooded merganser
6 red-breasted merganser
1 horned grebe
4 ruddy ducks
2 yellow-bellied sapsuckers

POTOMAC R AT WASHINGTON'S BIRTHPLACE (+ MUSE RD)
1400 Canvasbacks
1900 Scaup (both species)
95 common goldeneye
75 bufflehead
50 surf scoter
125 ruddy duck
2 red-breasted merganser
10 gadwall
3 black duck
10 mallard
4 ad and 2 imm bald eagle
surprisingly no looons or horned grebes

POPE'S CREEK AT WASHINGTON'S BIRTHPLACE
440 Tundra Swan
6 Mute Swan
2825 Canada Geese
1 Cackling Goose
42 Redhead
140 Canvasback
90 Ring-necked Duck
510 Scaup (more greaters than lessers)
470 mallard
90 black duck
3 green-winged teal
160 gadwall
12 american wigeon
10 bufflehead
10 common goldeneye
8 hooded merganser
3 great blue heron
15 killdeer
1 kingfisher

CURRIOMAN LANDING (near Montross, Westmoreland)
Almost entirely frozen,  amazing splashing sounds
as the canvasbacks fed. The gulls may have been
concentrated here because there were lots of
small fish on the surface of the ice.
1300 Canvasback
125 Ruddy Duck
1 lesser scaup
4 buffleheads
20 Tundra Swan
6 ad 4 imm bald eagles
1 harrier
1 killdeer
165 herring gull
70 great black-backed gull
1 lesser black-backed gull
125 ring-billed gull

LEEDSTOWN RAPPAHANNOCK RIVER
1 american goldeneye
4 red-breasted merganser
2 hooded merganser
40 common merganser
2 ad 2 imm bald eagle
2 red-tailed hawk
1 harrier
15 killdeer

LEEDSTOWN PRIVATE FARMS
30 Tundra Swan
30 Gadwall
9 American Wigeon
4 Pintail
4 shoveler
6 green-winged teal
3 black duck
160 mallard
5 redheads
3 ring-necked ducks
3400 canada geese
2 red-tailed hawk
1 red-shouldered hawk
1 kestrel
3 woodcock
80 white-crowned sparrow
50 white-throated sparrow
40 song sparrow
10 swamp sparrow


ALSO SEEN TODAY
Lots of RObins: Total of about 1200

Time for bed
Hopefully much of this will still be around when
I take my students out here on Monday!
All the best
Fred










Frederick D. Atwood     fredatwood@xxxxxxxxx
Flint Hill School, 10409 Academic Dr, Oakton, VA 22124
703-242-1675     
http://www.agpix.com/fredatwood
http://www.flinthill.org
http://tea.armadaproject.org/tea_atwoodfrontpage.html
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