[va-bird] Greenville County & Southampton Birding

Inspired by Todd Day's posting about his May 28 trip
to the Emporia area, I was galvanized into
rediscovering a wonderful area that's just a couple of
hours from my own backyard. Three weeks after Todd's
report, bird activity was still at full speed, with a
lot of active species and bird song.

First let me say that should you ever be in the Little
Texas vicinity (far from civilization) and you pull
over onto the road's shoulder to let a pick-up truck
pass you by, and then you get stuck in a muddy ditch
with leeches and deerflies and no idea who lives
nearby, and you're the last person in North America
who doesn't have a cell phone and you're alone and 
have to rely upon the "kindness of strangers"----- be
assured that Southampton Towing & Recovery out of
Courtland (757-569-7570 or 650-8119) will take care of
you. Jonathan Gibbs was my guardian angel that day.
And he didn't even poke fun at a birdwatcher!

Back to the birds, most folks want to know about the
kites in the area! I think that like many people, and
based on my own previous visits there, I presumed that
if I just drove the roads I would see lots of kites.
It didn't quite work out that way, and I drove around
several hours to see two individual adult MISSISSIPPI
KITES (one each along Hwys 662 and 653). But they were
worth the trip, and looking for them got me into lots 
of good habitat for other species. The open fields
produced many singing CHATS, FIELD & CHIPPING
SPARROWS, BOBWHITE, PRAIRIE WARBLERS, BLUE
GROSBEAKS,INDIGO BUNTINGS, and WILD TURKEY. At the
transition areas were the THREE VIREOS, SUMMER
TANAGERS, PEWEE, PHOEBE, and GNATCATCHERS; in the
deeper woods were HOODED and PROTHONOTARY WARBLERS,
OVENBIRD, ACADIAN FLYCATCHER, YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO,
WOOD THRUSH and GREEN HERON. I didn't hear any
Swainson's Warblers although I was on the alert for
them.

My favorite spot was along Hells Island Road west of
Emporia, where I birded at dusk and dark. I stayed in
Greenville County only, mainly because there were a
lot of pick-up trucks and howling dogs just over the
county line in Brunswick Co. But just along that
stretch (2-3 miles?) in Greenville Co., I heard at
least 1 dozen and probably closer to 2 dozen
WHIP-POOR-WILLS, both near (within 15 feet)and far. I
didn't make a stop after dusk where I didn't hear at
least one calling. And finally after 9:30 or so, when
it was dark, I heard two CHUCK-WILL's-WIDOWS. My other
big thrills here were a young SCREECH OWL right along
the edge of the road that was hopping about and trying
to do the descending "whinny" call but in a whispery,
soft voice, and a WOODCOCK that flew from the pines
into the open field just before dark.

I didn't go to Kerr, mainly because of the ditch
episode, but in spite of that, and maybe because the
temperatures fell from the miserable 90's into the
more pleasant 80's, I had a terrific time birding this
corner of the state. Highly recommended to all!

Karen Kearney
Chesapeake




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