VA Birders,
My husband Allen & I stopped at Craney Island, Portsmouth, on Friday
morning (Aug. 23), in hopes of finding Am. Avocets and Black Terns. We found
neither, but we did find one Whimbrel on the hillside lawn, on the right
shortly after leaving the office where we checked in. I also had 5-6 birds
which I believe were Am. Golden Plovers. They were still pretty much in
breeding plumage, and their backs were brown, flecked with gold. They also
looked like they had dark caps which were just beginning to fade.
Unfortunately, they were half hidden behind an embankment along the shore,
and I couldn't see any more of them.
The main purpose of our excursion was to take part in Brian Patteson's
pelagic trip from Hatteras, on the NC Outer Banks (often referred to as OBX
down there). The weather was dreadfully hot and humid, so what little
birding we did there other than on the pelagic trip was from our air
conditioned car. However, for those who might go down for one of these
trips, we went back to the South Shore Grill for dinner on Friday evening (we
discovered this restaurant on our last trip down there about 3 years ago, and
the food there is still absolutely outstanding. The Key Lime Pie is to die
for! The South Shore Grill is a non-smoking restaurant (complete with a
"Don't Even Think of Smoking Here" sign on the wall), and it is located in
the village of Frisco, just south of Buxton, and 8-1/2 mi. north of the very
nice Holiday Inn Express motel in Hatteras where we stayed. We also tried
the Austin Creek Grill, just behind our motel. It also was excellent, and
all non-smoking except for the bar, but a bit pricey. Because both
restaurants are very popular, expect to wait of up to an hour unless you are
really lucky.
Altho I realize it is in North Carolina, I thought you might be
interested in the highlights of our pelagic trip on Saturday, Aug. 24, on the
"Miss Hatteras," a nice large boat which is my favorite for pelagics--I sure
wish we had one like it for VA pelagics. Our ride out and back was a little
bumpy, when we traveled at full speed, but otherwise it was fairly smooth and
quite pleasant when we were watching and chasing birds. Brian and the
captain both get A+ for their efforts to follow and make sure all of us got
good looks at the best bird of the day, a Fea's Petrel (they got it in view 4
times with good, close looks on at least 2 occasions!). I also had the best
looks I have had at Black-capped Petrels, and in fact, I think just about
everybody got good looks at just about all the birds we saw except the
Red-necked Phalaropes. Highlights of the trip were:
Black-capped Petrel
Fea's Petrel
Cory's Shearwater
Audubon's Shearwater
Wilson's Storm-Petrel
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel
Red-necked Phalarope
Bridled Tern
Sooty Tern
On Sunday aftenoon, Aug. 25, we stopped at the CBBT (Chesapeake Bay
Bridge-Tunnel, for anyone not familiar with it), which connects Virginia
Beach to the VA Eastern Shore. We found 1 Sandwich Tern (with yellow-tipped
bill) in winter plumage on Island #3, some Common Terns on Island #2, and we
enjoyed all the Brown Pelicans flying by the islands. We saw no migrants on
the grassy strips on any of the islands. Our best sighting on the CBBT,
however, was not avian, but a school of at least 50-100 dolphins, which we
saw off the tip of Island #4, looking south toward Island #3. From the
Peterson's Mammals book (the only one we had), we think what we saw were
Common Dolphins. They were quite close, in pods of perhaps 6-8 each, and we
watched them leap all the way out of the water several times! They were
heading into the bay. Can anyone confirm that these were most likely Common
Dolphins?
Val Kitchens
Arlington, VA
You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
