[va-bird] upper Northern Neck, Sunday April 29

'Twas a wonderful day! Spectacular weather.
Exhaustingly relaxing. Dawn to dusk, with a
mid-day break to rip out invasive ailanthus
saplings that keep trying to take over my
property, while being serenaded by barred owl,
ovenbirds, hooded warbler, black-and-white
warbler, and yellow-throated warbler and scolded
by the only hermit thrush of the day. 122 species
(if I counted right)including 20 warblers.  My
first time down there in over a month. A
much-needed break.  Went to my usual haunts: King
George ponds, Wilmont Landing (Toby's Point),
Washington's Birthplace, and Leedstown (my
property and a friend's farm managed for
wildlife).  Nothing extraordinary, but highlights
were:
 
singing bobolinks (I can never get enough of that
song!), 
2 glossy ibis, 
great views of very low tanagers (both species,
waist-high) at Wilmont Rd, 
bank swallows checking out their burrows near the
KG Ponds (LaGrange Lane), l
ots of grasshopper sparrows, 
still quite a few white-crowned sparrows (all
extremely dapper adults), 
a nice group of blue-winged teals and sandpipers
in Leedstown, 
three wood duck ducklings (I feel like a
grandfather), 
an imm bald eagle chasing an osprey till it
dropped its fish and then being chased by another
imm eagle,
an tom turkey with amazingly bright wattles and
plumage who later gobbled,
and lots and lots of brightly colored bird-jewels
that took my breathe away.

Here is the list (with totals for the day):

2 common loon (crisp breeding plumage)
73 dc coromorant
4 great blue heron
2 glossy ibis
12 mute swan (too many, at GW Birthplace)
55 canade geese, one pair with 9 chicks
only 6 mallard
4 green-winged teal
1 male shoveler (KG ponds)
16 blue-winged teal
7 wood duck + 3 chicks
1 female ring-necked duck
14 lesser scaup (3 males)
7 female common mergnaser
1 female red-breasted merganser
18 ruddy duck
55 turkey vulture
4 black vulture
14 osprey
2 harrier
9 ad, 9 imm bald eagle
1 cooper's hawk
2 turkey
no bobwhites, even where common in the past
9 coot
3 killdeer
9 gr yellowlegs
9 lr yellowlegs
4 solitary sandpiper
2 spotted sandpiper
7 pectoral sandpiper
19 least sandpiper
2 snipe
20 laughing gull
100 ring-billed gull
5 herring gull
1 gr black-backed gull
1 royal tern
6 forster's tern
2 rock dove
25 mourning dove
3 barred owl
2 rt hummer
4 kingfisher
20 red-bellied woodpecker
7 flicker
3 downy
2 hairy
4 pileated
3 phoebe
3 great crested flycatcher
1 kingbird
12 white-eyed vireo
2 yellow-throated vireo
31 red-eyed vireo
30 blue jay 
35 am crow
2 fish crow
1 horned lark
95 tree swallow
46 martin
40-50 bank swallow
53 barn swallow
9 rough-winged swallow
18 titmice
16 carolina chickadee
2 house wren
30 carolina wren
10 rc kinglet
29 bg gnatcatcher
12 bluebird
3 wood thrush
1 hermit thrush
25 robin
26 catbird
18 mockingbird
7 thrasher
50 starling
5 prothonotary warbler
1 tennessee warbler (Toby's pt)
6 parula
1 magnolia
60 yellow-rumped
2 black-and-white
5 yellow-throated warb
11 prairie
1 blackpoll
16 pine
9 yellow
1 kentucky (Toby's pt)
3 hooded
1 worm-eating (toby's pt)
24 ovenbird
1 n waterthrush (Toby's pt)
1 la waterthrush
37 yellowthroat
4 chat
4 redstart (toby's pt)
2 summer tanager
9 scarlet tanager
4 towhee
18 field sparrow
57 chipping sparrow
39 savannah sparrow
6 song sparrow
17 swamp sparrow
70 white-throated sparrow
22 white-crowned sparrow
12 grasshopper sparrow
54 cardinal
 3 blue grosbeak
4 indigo bunting
13 bobolink
8 meadowlark
350 red-wings
80 c grackle
2 rusty bs
50 cowbirds
7 orchard oriole
1 baltimore oriole
14 house finch
35 goldfinch

Frogs singing: cricket, leopard, pickerel, green,
bull, cope's gray tree

Cute juvenile water snake looking for baby
salamanders in my vernal pool

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
http://tea.armadaproject.org/tea_atwoodfrontpage.html
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