VA BIRDers,
The regular Sunday morning Field Trip at Dyke Marsh, sponored by the Friends of
Dyke Marsh (www.fodm.org) and free to all, started at 8AM this morning by
gazing at Bald Eagles dotting the exposed river mudflats of Hunting Creek. We
could see 4 immatures there, and a single adult later in the day rounded our
total to 5. (by the way, Bald Eagle numbers on the DC and Fort Belvoir CBC
were considerably down from prior years, perhaps due to the warm weather -
things may be getting back to "normal" now).
We also spotted a few Common Mergansers in the river and a few DC Cormorants.
We headed down Haul Rd (much less breezy there!) and noted an adult
Red-shouldered Hawk passing overhead, hunting the forest. A fine sized group
of sparrows dominated by White-throated Sparrows were a treat, esp. to our
visitors from Arizona and California (the former picked up quite a few lifers
on her first trip to the east!) We heard one, then another Winter Wren and the
last fellow actually showed itself - posing on a fallen tree trunk!
At this point we found our first Gray Catbird which quickly skulked into some
vines. Fortunately another perched up well for all to admire this winter
visitor. Nearby we heard one E. Towhee but found a second across the trail.
Our only GC Kinglet rapidly foraged above.
Further down Haul Rd we found more sparrows including a gorgeous Fox Sparrow
which sat still nicely for a few heartbeats. Near the end of the trail we
finally encountered a couple of Red-winged Blackbirds.
After returning to our cars, I took our western visitors to the Hunting Creek
area to view the gulls; while discussing the ages of the bigger larids a
Sharpie flew over our shoulders, across the water, and then went on the attack
along the edge of the golf course. We saw flickers and cardinals explode our
of the vegetation and subsequently lost all sight of the Sharpie in the melee.
Kurt Gaskill
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