Well, this year the Kiptopeke Challenge really proved to be a challenge. We
were a special venue team doing only the Eastern Shore NWR. The weather was
not good, high southeast winds all day with rain after 11:30 till the end of
the day. Birds at Eastern Shore NWR were hunkered down riding out the
storm. Creature comforts for us humans were tough too with a power failure
that lasted about 5 hours Saturday afternoon, closing down the bottom of the
peninsula. Even Stingray's was closed!
Following is our list for the Challenge with additional highlights
afterwards:
Brown Pelican 25
Double crested Cormorant 13
Great Blue Heron 6
Great Egret 13
Green Heron 6
Black crowned night Heron 11
Black Vulture 14
Turkey Vulture 5
Canada Goose 2
Wood Duck 6
Mallard 6
Osprey 3
Bald Eagle 1
Merlin 15
Clapper Rail 3
Willet 2
Laughing Gull 97
Ring billed Gull 3
Herring Gull 10
Great Black backed Gull 8
Caspian Tern 2
Royal Tern 29
Common Tern 3
Mourning Dove 3
Chimney Swift 47
Ruby throated Hummingbird 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Eastern Kingbird 1
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 3
Fish Crow 1
Crow sp. 13
Purple Martin 1
Tree Swallow 2500 (!)
Barn Swallow 3
Carolina Chickadee 1
Tufted Titmouse 1
Carolina Wren 13
Gray Catbird 2
Common Yellowthroat 3
Northern Cardinal 13
Indigo Bunting 1
Bobolink 3
Boat tailed Grackle 1
44 species
If we could have counted Friday night and Sunday morning, we would have
added the following species:
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Glossy Ibis
White Ibis
Sharp shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Broad winged Hawk
American Kestrel
Peregrine
Northern Flicker
White eyed Vireo
Blue gray Gnatcatcher
American Robin
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Black throated Blue Warbler
Pine Warbler
Palm Warbler
American Redstart
Connecticut Warbler
Brown headed Cowbird
Another 24 species
And, last but not least, we added Long tailed Skipper to our life butterfly
list and saw our first Green Tree Frog.
Glenn Koppel and Mary Alice Koeneke
gjkoppel@xxxxxxx
Centreville, VA 20120-2901
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