Sorry for the late notes here from my trip LAST
weekend to King William and King and Queen
Counties, but I thought some of you might be
interested, even though it is late.
The most interesting thing to me was the
unusually high number of kestrels (56). A few
fields had 6-8 on the wires. One location
(Elsing Green) had 16. Curiously I looked at
other reports from last weekend to see if this
was a state-wide occurrence but did not see
similar numbers in other reports. The next day I
was in the Northern Neck, the next peninsula to
the east, and though I couldn't bird any back
roads because car trouble made me head straight
back home, I only saw 3 kestrels en route. I
wonder why.
Other birds of interest:
Waterfowl: 27 american wigeon, 4 bufflehead, 14
ring-necked duck, 1 pied-billed grebe, 6 wood
duck, 14 black duck, 2 green-winged teal, 10+
mallard, 50ish Canada Geese (Best locations were
Green Pasture Pond near Beulahville, The Pocket
on the Pamunkey, and Walkerton bridge)
Shorebirds: 29 greater yellowlegs, 15 lesser
yellowlegs, 9 killdeer, 16 Wilson's snipe (best
location for shorebirds is the boat ramp before
you get to the Pamunkey reservation).
Raptors: 56 kestrels, 1 cooper's hawk, 1
sharp-shinned hawk, 3 northern harrier, 4
red-shouldered hawk, 4 red-tailed hawk, 7 pairs
of ospreys, bald eagle (6 adult,4 imm)
Others: all the woodpeckers, 8 bobwhites, 2
blue-gray gnatcatcher, 8 yellow-throated warbler,
10 pine warbler, 3 Louisiana waterthrush, 1
hermit thrush, 1 winter wren, 6 meadowlarks, 2
horned larks, 2 american pipits, ~10 chipping
sparrows, ~30 white-throats, ~30 juncos, 45
bluebirds, 5 cedar waxwing, ~60 tree swallows, 3
northern rough-winged swallows, 2 purple
martins, 5 eastern phoebe, a great blue heron
rookery at Hybla Farm (near King William)but saw
only 2 active nests.
=====
Frederick D. Atwood fredatwood@xxxxxxxxx
Flint Hill School, 10409 Academic Dr, Oakton, VA 22124
703-242-1675
http://www.agpix.com/fredatwood
http://www.flinthill.org
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