VA BIRDers,
Sorry this is a bit late, The regular Sunday moring Field Trip at Dyke Marsh,
sponored by the Friends of Dyke Marsh and free to all went off without a hitch
at 8AM, although the newly formed lake in the picnic area needed to be skirted!
We encountered an excellent Baltimore Oriole display with nearly a dozen birds
in the south picnic area flying back and forth, singing and giving their
rattling call notes. Only one Orchard Oriole was spotted and so it seems that
the bulk of this species has migrated past.
Also outstanding was the Ruby-throated Hummingbird display, with about a dozen
spotted mainly along Haul Rd. Eastern Kingbirds and Gray Catbirds made welcome
appearances in numbers, too, totalling close to ten each. Two skulking
Yellow-billed Cuckoos - one a bit dingy suggesting it may be a hatch year bird
(but we never got a good look at it!) - were a fine treat.
Both Caspian and Forster's Terns flew about, some quite close to the observers.
Common Yellowthroats were spotted along the dogleg, one was still singing.
Two Rough-winged Swallows were mixed in with about a dozen Barn Swallows; the
latter will be mostly gone very soon.
After returning to our cars, some of us drove up to the shorebird car park near
the Hunting Creek mudflats and quickly spied 2 newly arrived Pectoral
Sandpipers. We also managed to pick out a Western Sandpiper mixed in with the
two smaller peeps. Two Osprey kept buzzing the air overhead causing the
shorebirds to be a bit skittish!
All in all a pleasant day!
Kurt Gaskill
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