The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel was very good for seabirds today, with
thousands of Northern Gannets feeding over fish, as well as thousands of
gulls, all of the expected species. It is early in the "gulling" season, and
Laughing Gulls are still present in the hundreds, which typically diminishes
to a few or few dozen after 10-15 December. Mid-December is, on average, the
beginning of the productive "gulling" season at the Chesapeake Bay mouth, but
it is sometimes earlier, sometimes later. There does seem to be abundant
prey this year, in the form of Atlantic Needlefish. Hundreds of Black and
thousands of Surf Scoters were also moving into the Bay, as often happens on
N or NE winds. Surprisingly scarce were Common and Red-throated Loons,
though they might have moved to lee areas. Few passerines (White-throated
Sparrows, Slate-colored Juncos) were present.
Fisherman Island held at least 500 swallows, which (by their feeding habits,
on bayberries) I assume were all Tree Swallows, though it's possible that one
of the other species was mixed in. I could only find 10 Tree Swallows
elsewhere on the Shore. In the afternoon, I got my slides from the weekend
back, and there is a nice image of a Cave Swallow among them. There are also
four or five good images of an apparent Violet-green Swallow, a bird
mentioned in an earlier post, and Brenda Tekin also captured this bird on
film. As soon as possible, we'll post these images to a website. Virginia
has no records of this species, though Cape May has two from this time of
year, and Pennsylvania has one, apparently.
Ned Brinkley
Cape Charles, VA
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