[va-bird] Virginia Beach birding


 
Today was spent looking for Brewer's Blackbirds on the western shore of Back 
Bay (Charity Neck and Muddy Creek Road horse farms, as well as a few on Drum 
Point, Horn Point, Gum Bridge, Pleasant Ridge, Stuart Rd., etc.), without 
luck.  The area has more development now, and the horse farms there are in 
many cases now quite manicured.  The Brewer's found there in the late 1980s 
through 1990s tended to stick around the "messier" horse farms.  No Painted 
Buntings at feeders checked around Pungo and s. Virginia Beach, but it might 
be early yet.  A long walk around Cape Henry Shores, scanning pines and 
hollies for roosting Long-eared Owls, was also fruitless. 

The ocean and bay were full of birds, however.  A total of 6 Lesser 
Black-backed Gulls and 1 Bonaparte's Gull don't reflect the overall numbers 
of gulls around, but most of them were miles west of the CBBT (Islands 3/4) 
in the morning, milling around with at least 5000 distant gannets.  A 
Laughing Gull in definitive alternate plumage and a first-winter Ring-billed 
Gull with a perfect "Common Gull" tail pattern were the only oddities on the 
CBBT I could find.  A dozen White-throated Sparrows, one Red Fox Sparrow, one 
Slate-colored Junco, and a Song Sparrow were also there.  

Fisherman Island held at least 100 swallows, the only ones I saw today (apart 
from 10 Trees west of Back Bay), but I couldn't stop to check through them.  
Cape May had 28 Cave Swallows going to roost in some of the tall hotels there 
(under balconies) this afternoon.  It's worth checking every swallow on the 
coast!   Cape May also had a single Bank Swallow today.

Ned Brinkley
Cape Charles, VA 
You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email 
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.

Other related posts: