Hello, birders.
A dozen birders attended the Northern Virginia Bird
Club walk this morning at Mason Neck SP, jointly
sponsored by the park. The weather started off very
cold, about 23F, thankfully the wind was absent. By
the end of the walk, which took us on the Bayview
Trail and around the Visitor Center area, the
temperature had climbed into the 40s.
Belmont Bay has frozen up over the last couple of days
so waterfowl numbers and diversity were low. The
waterfowl that were present were resting on the ice.
It was fun to see Bald Eagles doing the same, by the
end the number on the bay grew from 4 to 10. This
included two adult pairs. Females should be laying
eggs soon.
Some G.c. Kinglets were in a mixed flock in the woods,
the only kinglets some of us have seen all winter. We
searched the R.w. Blackbird flock in the marsh for
Rusties but couldn't find any. Some of the Red-wings
were singing. I heard a Sapsucker drumming a couple
of times, the first time I've heard that in the
Mid-Atlantic.
A couple of us birders stayed afterwards to see what
else we could find. I was able to add a few more
species to the daily list, which follows:
Canada Goose, 130
Tundra Swan, 32
Am. Black Duck, 40
Mallard, 200
Lesser Scaup, 100
Com. Merganser, 4
Gr. Blue Heron, 1
T. Vulture, 2
Bald Eagle, 5 ad., 6 imm.
Red-t. Hawk, 1
Ring-billed Gull, 10
Herring Gull, 2
Gr. Black-backed Gull, 1
gull sp., (far) 40
M. Dove, 12
B. Kingfisher, 1 (heard only)
Red-bellied Woodpecker, 4
Yel.-bellied Sapsucker, 2
Downy Woodpecker, 5
Hairy Woodpecker, 1 (heard only)
Pileated Woodpecker, 1 (heard only)
B. Jay, 4 (heard only)
Am. Crow, 6
Car. Chickadee, 8
T. Titmouse, 14
W.b. Nuthatch, 7
Car. Wren, 6
Winter Wren, 3
G.c. Kinglet, 3
E. Bluebird, 8
Hermit Thrush, 7
Am. Robin, 1 (heard only)
Eur. Starling, 10
Song Sparrow, 4
Wh.-throated Sparrow, 60
D.e. Junco, 25
No. Cardinal, 9
R.w. Blackbird, 71
Am. Goldfinch, 5
Good birding to you,
Scott Baron
Fairfax, Va.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta.
http://new.mail.yahoo.com
You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
