VA-Birders:
First, a couple neat sightings on the James River near Mulberry Island today:
Boat-tailed Grackle (1) - didn't realize they were up here
Ruddy Ducks (~25)
Buffleheads (7)
DC Cormorants (100s on the Warwick River)
Common Loons (2)
There were other ducks, terns, and gulls around as well, but I was too busy
measuring oysters to get a good look at them.
Second, I just wanted to share a bit of information regarding Craney Island
that may or may not be news for list subscribers. This is not intended to
be an alarm, just an FYI. I don't know what it means for birding this
location, but would be very interested if others have more information.
This comes from a reliable source, so I did not check up on it. At the
least, I would suspect that such an increase in activity around the island
would reduce the bird numbers, but hopefully not.
Maersk Lines (http://www.maerskline.com/) is developing a very large
container facility on Craney Island to serve their newest, massive
container vessels on the US east coast. Servicing of these vessels will
eventually lead to dredging of the shipping channels to 55' depth and, for
safety reasons, widening of the channels. The Virginia Port Authority is
poised to build a similar size terminal, also on Craney Island. More very
large ships will come. The Panama Canal is to be widened to accommodate
these super size container vessels, even perhaps the new China Lines
vessels at 23 containers wide. The prospect of Hampton Roads becoming one
of the top three container terminals in the US (incl Long Beach and
Seattle-Tacoma) is very real, with at least a 4x increase in traffic by 2025.
Dave Hewitt
Gloucester, VA
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