VA BIRDers,
Kim Peacock and I visited a few places today with the highlight being a first
winter Glaucous Gull at the Prince William County Sanitary Landfill at 10AM
(note: they prefer this terminology over "dump") It was mixed in with what I
thought were somewhat low seasonal numbers of the typical 3 gulls - ca. 1500
Ring-billed and Herring and ca. 30 Great Black-backed Gulls. We also made out
one adult Lesser Black-backed Gull and prob. one first winter which was
hunkered down.
We also visited the scaup raft off Leesylvania SP at 1130 but saw reduced
numbers from prior reports today. Out on the ice there were ca. 600 Am. Black
Ducks and Mallards just loafing and we could see the distant thousand-plus
Common Mergansers in the channel. We then visited the marina overlooking the
mouth of the Occoquan River (follow the road from the Woodbridge VRE station)
and noted a Red-breasted Merganser and female Common Goldeneye - the later
present since the beginning of December. Plus a hundred or so Mallards and
scattered scaup, Canvasbacks, and a Ruddy and Ring-necked Ducks.
The nice waterfowl show was at Pohick Bay, viewed from Pohick SP, Fairfax Co.
The sewage treatment plant dumps warm water into Pohick Cr over a mile upstream
and yet portions of this bay are nearly always ice free. Here we noted about
2000 ducks - 2 groups of Am. Black and Mallards loafing on the ice (ca. 500).
The open water held perhaps 700 Ring-necked Ducks, several hundred Mallards,
Am. Black Duck, and scaup, and a fine showing of Canvasbacks, Bufflehead,
Hooded Mergansers and Ruddy Ducks. I suppose if you hiked up the trail you
would find more of the dabblers "around the corner" that are out of sight from
the viewpoint at the end of the parking lot. A scope would be very useful at
this and all the other locations noted above.
Kurt Gaskill
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