Greetings...
Sue Heath and I took advantage of a planned day off and headed to the Eastern
Shore on Tuesday afternoon, looking to bird most of Wednesday. We started at
Sunset Beach near the tip of the peninsula, predawn to look for migrant
passerines. We had three fly-over warblers, about a half dozen hummingbirds,
a kingbird, three breeding-plumaged Black-bellied Plovers and a mixed
cormorant/ibis flock of six each (Plegadis ibis).
From there we headed north, taking our time going up Route 600. Along the
way we had several fields with many (at least a dozen) Semi-palmated
Sandpipers. A few Horned Larks were in one of the fields. Cattle Egrets
were seen in at least three locations along 600, in groups between ten and
four birds.
Once we got to Chincoteague, we pretty much headed straight into the refuge,
as the tide was pretty high while we crossed the causeway. I was at
Chincoteague a week ago with Ned Brinkley, and the number of shorebirds in
Swan Cove today was quite reduced from a week ago. Dowitchers seemed close
to the same number, with somewhere between one and two hundred birds. The
big difference was the peep. There was probably only a fifth or so of the
amount present as a week ago. There was no sign of the Curlew Sandpiper (the
sightings log at the refuge listed 2 Aug as the last date, among the other
entries of "birds," "deer," "animals,"...). We were never able to find a
Stilt Sandpiper today, but a couple were present a week ago. There were a
few Red Knots around last week, none today. A big reason for the lack of
birds could be the lack of water. The levels had dropped in Swan Cove,
though not dramatically. Perhaps fifteen percent or so, which admittedly is
sort of a rough guess. Still, with a high tide, I would have expected more
birds on the exposed flats.
It is hard to estimate numbers for the peep, but there were hundreds each of
Semipalmated Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, and maybe just a couple hundred
Westerns. There were a few hundred Semipalmated Plovers, a single Killdeer,
less than a dozen Black-bellied Plovers, two Black-necked Stilts (on the
Causeway as we left), scattered Yellowlegs, a couple Turnstones, perhaps a
hundred Sanderling, a few White-rumps, at least one (but probably several)
Long-billed Dowitchers, and the best bird of the trip, a Wilson's Phalarope.
The Phalarope was seen feeding out of the water, in the northeastern-most
section of Swan Cove. We walked the gravel path that runs north along the
beach a few hundred yards and scanned the last of the water that could be
seen. The bird was doing its odd foraging in there. For terns we had about
ten Sandwich, one Caspian, a few Royal, and plenty of Forster's and Least.
The Black Tern from a week ago was no where to be found. There was one
Skimmer hanging about.
From Chincoteague we headed south, straight to Oyster. We ran into Ben
Copeland and John Porter after a few minutes here. We had a falling tide,
but the birds were still mostly beyond the range for proper identification.
Birds we were sure about were one Marbled Godwit, perhaps a dozen Whimbrel,
several Semi-plover, six or so Black-bellieds, a few yellowlegs, about thirty
Willets, and a couple dozen distant dowitchers. There was a Skimmer on one
of the oyster beds.
Cheers...
Todd
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Todd M. Day
Jeffersonton, VA
Culpeper County
BlkVulture@xxxxxxx
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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.
