[va-bird] NVBC Chincoteague Weekend and Beyond

VABirders,

    The 30 plus members of the Northern Virginia Bird Club who took park in 
our Spring Chincoteague Weekend, May 17-19, found at least 112 species of 
birds.  Highlights included Northern Bobwhite on the Wildlife Drive at 
Chincoteague NWR on Friday (May 17) and on our car caravan to the Wash Flats 
on Saturday (May 18), 3 Piping Plovers on May 18 (1 on the Tom's Cove Beach 
and 2 on the Wash Flats), 6 Black-necked Stilts on the Chincoteague Causeway 
on Sunday (May 19), several Whimbrel on the ocean beach opposite Tom's Cove 
and more on the Wash Flats on May 18, 6 Red Knots on the ocean beach on May 
18, Least Terns in a variety of locations on the refuge all 3 days and on our 
boat trip on the Chincoteague Channel on May 19, 2 Black Skimmers at Swan 
Cove on May 19,  at least 6-8 Willow Flycatchers and a pair of Blue Grosbeaks 
on the Wash Flats on May 18, and several Seaside Sparrows and Marsh Wrens at 
Saxis Marsh on May 19.

    Gordon Knight, Mary Kaye Rubin, and I headed south on Sunday afternoon.  
We stopped at Willis Wharf, where we found several more Whimbrel, but no 
Marbled Godwits.  We checked the Ramp Road pond at Eastern Shore NWR late 
that day, but we did not find any White Ibis there.  We also looked, without 
success, for the Eurasian Collared-Dove where Stephen Eccles had reported it. 
 We found a nest in a tree which we think was the one Stephen described, but 
the bird sitting on it had a black tail, very much like a grackle (we 
couldn't see the rest of the bird).  We crossed the CBBT this morning 
(Monday, May 20), where our best birds were Purple Sandpipers, now in 
breeding plumage, on Islands 2-4 (we didn't check Island 1).  The only others 
birds of note on the islands were a few American Oystercatchers and some 
Ruddy Turnstones.  Finally, we stopped at Craney Island where we found 8 
Gull-billed Terns and a probable American Golden-Plover near the beginning of 
the loop (we found none on our first stop there, but after driving around for 
about half an hour we checked the area again and found the terns and the 
plover.  The American Golden-Plover had a golden-brown back with a dark hood 
on top on its head--it was just coming into breeding plumage, and only had 
spotty black on its breast.  The breeding-plumage Black-bellied Plovers we 
saw looked much more black and white on their backs and were white on the top 
of their heads.    

Val Kitchens
Arlington, VA
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