[va-bird] Eastern Shore trip, Friday and Saturday

 
Wayne Schmidt and I visited Chincoteague and areas around Cape Charles
on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning Jan 21-22. Because the weather sounded 
as though it was going to get much more interesting as we headed inland and 
north, we skipped a number of good southern Northampton County areas and left 
for home at about 11:30 AM. A great trip nonetheless. Of the list below, 4 
species were picked up in Maryland on the way to Chincoteague Friday morning; I 
marked them with an asterisk. The remainder we saw in about 7 hours of Virginia 
birding. 96 species; 95 definitely identified.
 
Craig Tufts
 
Location codes: 
AC- Assateague NS/Chincoteague NWR
CC- Cape Charles area
BT- Bridge Tunnel
 
Common loon
Red-throated loon CC
Pied-billed grebe AC
Horned grebe
Northern gannet BT
Brown pelican BT
Double-crested cormorant BT- 100-150
Great cormorant BT- 4-5
Great blue heron
Great egret AC
Black-crowned night-heron AC
Turkey vulture
Mute swan *
Tundra swan AC
Snow goose
Canada goose
Brant BT- 4 birds
Mallard
American black duck 
Gadwall AC
Northern pintail AC
American wigeon AC
Northern shoveler AC
Blue-winged teal AC- 1 bird
Redhead CC * 2 prs
Lesser scaup- perhaps 120 at BT
Ring-necked duck CC
Harlequin duck BT third island- pr
Long-tailed duck 
Surf scoter
Black scoter BT
Common goldeneye *
Bufflehead
Hooded merganser
Red-breasted merganser
Ruddy duck AC
Sharp-shinned hawk
Red-shouldered hawk
Red-tailed hawk
Bald eagle
Merlin AC
American kestrel
Black-bellied plover- AC
Kildeer
American oystercatcher- AC; 10-12 on causeway oyster beds
Greater yellowlegs- AC
Willet- AC; 20 in surf
Ruddy turnstone- BT, CC
Purple sandpiper- BT 
Sanderling- AC and CC
Dunlin- AC
Short-billed dowitcher- CC; two birds, slightly different plumages- Washington 
Ave lake
American woodcock- CC; Sust Tech Park
Bonaparte's gull- BT; 10-15 heading out of bay between islands 3 and 4
Ring-billed gull
Herring gull
Iceland/glaucous gull- CC; single imm heading south quickly along beach
Great black-backed gull
Razorbill- BT; northeast corner 1st island- see note below
Rock pigeon
Mourning dove
Great horned owl- CC; Sust Tech Park
Belted kingfisher
Red-bellied woodpecker
Downy woodpecker
Hairy woodpecker
Northern flicker
Blue jay
American crow
Tufted titmouse
Carolina chickadee
Red-breasted nuthatch- AC; at least two
White-breasted nuthatch
Brown-headed nuthatch- AC; two groups of 4-6
Carolina wren
Eastern bluebird
American robin
Hermit thrush- CC-Sust Tech Park
Gray catbird- CC- 2 Sust Tech Park; eating or probing in sumac fruits
Northern mockingbird
Brown thrasher- CC-1 Sust Tech Park
European starling
Yellow-rumped warbler
Northern cardinal
Field sparrow
Savannah sparrow
White-throated sparrow
Song sparrow
Swamp sparrow
Dark-eyed junco
Eastern meadowlark
Brown-headed cowbird *
Red-winged blackbird
Common grackle *
Boat-tailed grackle
House sparrow
 
The highlight was the razorbill. We saw the bird fly in from the north or west 
at 11 AM Saturday and land perhaps 100 yds north and east of the tip of the 
rocks at the north end of island #1. It was perhaps 150 yds off the island 
retaining wall. It did the typically sloppy alcid landing. It appeared to be a 
neckless bundle of black and white. There were not other birds within 30 yards 
of it but further afield was a mixed flotilla of surf and black scoters, 
long-tailed ducks and some lesser scaup. We watched it for about 5 seconds, 
both knew immediately it was an alcid and then ran back to the car for spotting 
scopes. We got back, got set up and it was gone. 
 
But then it appeared just 80 yds from us. Again, very quick view. I thought I 
saw white in the scapulars. I noticed no white line on the bill. There was 
white on the flanks behind wings. No noticeable neck. Didn't notice anything 
about tail length. The bird again dove. 
 
It came up about 40 seconds later within 10-15 yards of the rocks rimming the 
island. With my 10 x binocs, I definitely saw a very compressed and relatively 
long(not stubby like a dovekie's) bill. I tried to figure body length* at first 
thought it was very small but in thinking later, realized it was a bit larger 
than a horned grebe that was swimming nearby. Again, no noticeable neck on this 
bird.
 
It again dove. It never came up. Or we never saw where it came up. We watched 
the entire area for another 10 minutes in driving sleet. As the bird had very 
quickly swum in from 200 yards out to within 15 yards of us, we were really 
frustrated that it just vanished. Our thoughts*something large with fins ate 
it. OR it swam into the rocks directly below us and climbed up into them, out 
of view. The size of the bird, compressed, large bill and black and white 
pattern finally registered as a likely immature razorbill. It wasn't until 
after I'd returned home and read David Clarke's email that I realized the bird 
he and his group watched at 10 AM or so that day from island #2, the bird that 
disappeared from their view, was very likely the same bird the appeared for us 
at the north end of island #1 at around 11 AM.
 
 

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