[va-bird] pacific loon, leucistic red-tail, redheads in northern neck

Howdy!
I had a fun time exploring places I had never
birded before.
I made the three hour drive down to Kilmarnock to
see the leucistic red-tailed hawk that Tom
Teeples reported a couple weeks ago.  Missed it
in the morning but saw it in the afternoon and
shot a couple photos, one with a regular red-tail
in the same view.  This leucistic bird has a red
tail and quite a bit of brown on the face. 
Thanks to Tom for encouraging me to come down to
see it and for showing me its favorite perches.

In the morning I also birded the area around
Deltaville and Sting Ray Point at the tip of
Middlesex County (middle peninsula), but did not
find much.

I was eager to check out Dameron Marsh in
Northumberland County where so many good birds
have been reported by others in the past year.  I
had never been there and I fell in love with it,
even in the single-digit windchill on the
observation platform.  Next time I'm in the area,
I'll probably skip Middlesex County and spend
more time here.

I got to Dameron Marsh (see the VDGIF bird trail
book for directions) around 4:30 and stayed 'til
almost dark (about 6). Scanning with my Zeiss
scope I noticed a dark-backed loon off by itself
with a very small beak--about half as
heavy-looking as a common loon's.  And this bird
did not have the pale look and snooty look
(tilted up beak) of a red-throated loon, so I
zoomed in on it.  It was flapping, preening, and
rolling in the water for  five or ten minutes and
then was feeding, disappearing for a few minutes
again before I could find it again.  I watched
carefully for the white feathers on the flanks
hoping it would be an arctic loon (which would be
a lifer)and didn't find even a tuft near the back
end.  When diving there was a mottled-looking
gray area where I was hoping for the white
flanks. Here are the field marks I observed in
nice afternoon light and then gray dusk light.
1. Narrow straight beak, held parallel not up. 
Beak was at most half as heavy as a common loon.
2. Back, back of neck and head were very dark and
solid down to the level of the eyes, hiding the
eyes.  There was no white around the eyes as
would normally be seen in a common, and
red-throated would have more white on the
face/cheeks. Even zoomed in to 60 I couldn't be
sure if it had the "necklace" which Sibley says
is usually present in Pacific.  I might have seen
a trace of it but couldn't be sure.  Dark on back
extended to water level, no trace of white flanks
or white flank-tuft as in arctic.  Border of
black and white on neck was sharp, smooth, unlike
common's.
3. Bird size could not be determined but general
build was less chunky than a common and less
delicate than a red-throated. Its head looked
rounder to me than the head of common or the
arctic pictured in Sibley.
Unfortunately I could not ever find him and focus
on him when my camera was on the scope.  I hope
someone else can find this bird.  

A lot of birds were flying in to the marsh at
dusk.  I hoped for a short-eared owl but saw
none.

Here is what I saw at Dameron Marsh:
130 yellow-rumped warblers
250 red-winged blackbirds
1 catbird
1 thrasher
swamp and song sparrows
310 mallard flying in at dusk
60 black duck flying in at dusk 
90 unidentified black or mallard type "
1 pure white duck that did not look like a
domestic duck to me, though it was distant.  It
just didn't seem very chunky.
3 pintail 2 M, 1 F swimming with swans
135 REDHEADS
20 American Wigeon
610 Canada Geese (no cacklings or others)
167 Tundra Swan
6 Mute Swan
1 Common Loon
1 Pacific Loon (my first in VA)
1 kestrel and 12 horned larks along the road to
the marsh.


In Middlesex County from the Rappahannock bridge
to Sting Ray Point I had the following totals:
2 river otter catching fish in a mill pond
Surf Scoter 49 male, 45 female
Black Scoter 2 female
Bufflehead 59 male, 59 female
common goldeneye 3 male 2 female
Ruddy Duck 60 
Long-tailed Duck 4
Canvasback 215 (Locklies Marina)
hooded merganser 1 pair
red- breasted merganser 7 male, 5 female
2 black duck
6 Bonaparte's Gull
45 ringbilled gull
115 herring gull
8 great black backed gull
8 common loon
2 horned grebe
2 great blue heron
5 killdeer
735 robins on fields
23 bluebirds
14 mockingbirds
about 75 juncos
1 kestrel
1 harrier
1 red-tailed hawk
10 scaup
16 pigeons
~15 turkey vultures
~5 black vultures


Also at the golf course where the leucistic hawk
was in Kilmarnock I was surprised by a flock of
25-30 chipping sparrows and 2 cedar waxwings
flying over.

All the best
fred

=====
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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