[va-richmond-general] GBBC - James River

I checked out the river from Huguenot Bridge down to the Wetlands today for the Great Backyard Bird Count. As others have reported this week, the number of waterfowl is way down, but still some birds worth going out to see. The highlight of the day for me was finding not just one, but a pair of White-winged Scoters at the Wetlands at the downstream boundary of the park where Arun Bose had reported them on several days recently. The birds were associating with a pair of Ring-necked Ducks on the far side of the river a bit downstream from the spot where the creek enters the river. I also found four Gadwall at the same spot.
The Wetlands were the site of a couple of lunchtime dramas today. As I walked down to the bank to look for the White-winged Scoter, I flushed three White-throated Sparrows in the brush by the trail. As if it had been waiting for just such a chance, a Sharp-shinned Hawk exploded from a little higher in the brush after the fleeing sparrows. As far as I could tell, it was unsuccessful, retreating downriver after its pass through the little flock. This was the closest I can remember being to a Sharpie, and though it was brief, it was startling to get such a close comparison of the size of these two species. Just a bit earlier, I had witnessed a bit of intra- and inter-species envy over a tasty fish. I noticed a ruckus out in the middle of the river, and spotted a Cormorant with the fish it had just captured. It was surrounded by three of its brethren (or sisteren, not sure), all hoping to nab a nice morsel without actually working for it, with a Herring Gull also angling for the same outcome. Though it lost its grip once, the original cormorant managed to hang on and eventually gulped the fish down.
To summarize, Bufflehead were the most numerous duck on the river today, with a flock of about 50 at Huguenot Flatwater and another 40 at the Wetlands, and a few scattered in between. There were only a few Ring-necked Ducks and no scaup that I saw. There were a few Mallards around, and of course Canada Geese. No mergansers.
I started out the morning at UR (had a little work to do before I let myself recreate), and was pleased to find a couple of Brown-headed Nuthatches along with the Pine Warblers that had been singing all week in the Pines around the Business School and tennis courts. 

Good birding!

--
Lewis Barnett -- Chair, Dept. of Math & CS, U. of Richmond, VA 23173
             -- lbarnett@xxxxxxxxxxxx | lbarnett@xxxxxxx
             -- http://www.mathcs.richmond.edu/~lbarnett/

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