[va-bird] Swamp Sparrow & etc., Dyke Marsh, 7/14/02

VA BIRDers,

Although the regular Sunday Field Trip was cancelled due to rain, I still 
visited Dyke Marsh after the rain ceased this afternoon to fill in holes in 
the database as well as continue to look for breeders.  Top bird was a 
singing adult Swamp Sparrow near the phragmites patch, about half way down 
the dog leg of Haul Road.  Swamp Sparrow was last reported in late May this 
year at Dyke and the extensive breeding bird survey crews have not reported 
this species in June - hence this bird is likely to have recently arrived.  
Dyke has been the site of a few previous summer records of Swamp Sparrow over 
the last few decades (at least once close to today's location) and this 
species may have been a breeder at Dyke in the early part of the last 
century.  I point out the "safe dates" for breeding extend to the end of 
August and so we shall wait with our fingers crossed!

Other notables in the picnic area and along Haul Road today were YB Cuckoo, 
Acadian Flycatcher, E. Phoebe, Warbling and Red-eyed Vireos, Purple Martin 
(numbers are growing along the river), House Wrens (not a breeder at Dyke), 
Marsh Wrens, Gray Catbirds, No. Parula, Yellow Warblers, Common 
Yellowthroats, Indigo Buntings, and Orchard and Baltimore Orioles.

During visits in the last few days, the following waterfowl and associates 
were noted:

Pied-billed Grebe 3
Snowy Egret 2
Black-crowned Night Heron 1
Canada Goose 326
Mallard 153
Ring-necked Duck 1, "Firestone"
Hooded Merganser 1
Ruddy Duck 5
American Coot 7

both the Ruddy Ducks and Am. Coots seem to be attracting flyby birds of their 
own species as we started the week with 4 and 3 of these birds, respectively.

Also, larid numbers are up greatly with the following noted Friday:

Laughing Gull 87
Ring-billed Gull 944
Herring Gull 1
Great Black-backed Gull 10
Caspian Tern 16
Forster's Tern 49

Lastly, under the rainy skies, I visited the mudflats in the morning and 
found the following shorebirds:

Killdeer 24
Greater Yellowlegs 3
Lesser Yellowlegs 10
Spotted Sandpiper 2
Semipalmated Sandpiper 2
Least Sandpiper 14

And so there is yet another shorebird arrival this Julian Calendar Week at 
the mudflats (Jon Little's Short-billed Dowitcher was a great report and 
on-time for this species at this location; ditto for today's semipeep).

Kurt Gaskill



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