One of the Richmond Audubon Birdathon <http://www.richmondaudubon.org/BirdAThonhon.html> teams did their big day last Saturday, May 15. Our theme this year was birding along the James River. The Crazy Coots (Lewis Barnett, Kim Harrell, Laurie Kam, Bob Schamerhorn and Pete Walker) started out in the James River Park System in the city of Richmond, and then looped down Route 5, across the Benjamin Harrison Bridge, and back in Route 10, ending up at Dutch Gap Conservation Area. We traveled 87 miles, all within a 20 mile radius of the State Capitol. We had a total of 108 species. Highlights were a 12 warbler morning between the 42nd Street and Reedy Creek entrances to James River Park, two Peregrine Falcon sightings, one in downtown Richmond, nesting Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets at the Pipeline Walk segment of James River Park, a pair of Baltimore Orioles tending a nest suspended over Tredegar Street near the Belle Isle footbridge, multiple Red-headed Woodpeckers, a Yellow-breasted Chat and a very cooperative Prairie Warbler at Crewes Channel, and some good shorebirds, including a couple of female Wilson's Phalaropes at Shirley Plantation. The complete list appears below.
Feel free to contact me for further information about supporting the RAS Birdathon.
-- Lewis Barnett -- http://www.mathcs.richmond.edu/~lbarnett/ Species list: Canada Goose Wood Duck American Black Duck Mallard Northern Bobwhite Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Great Egret Green Heron Black Vulture Turkey Vulture Osprey Bald Eagle Red-shouldered Hawk Red-tailed Hawk American Kestrel Peregrine Falcon Semipalmated Plover Killdeer Spotted Sandpiper Solitary Sandpiper Greater Yellowlegs Lesser Yellowlegs Least Sandpiper Wilson's Phalarope Laughing Gull Ring-billed Gull Caspian Tern Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Yellow-billed Cuckoo Barred Owl Chimney Swift Ruby-throated Hummingbird Belted Kingfisher Red-headed Woodpecker Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Pileated Woodpecker Eastern Wood-Pewee Acadian Flycatcher Eastern Phoebe Great Crested Flycatcher Eastern Kingbird White-eyed Vireo Yellow-throated Vireo Warbling Vireo Red-eyed Vireo Blue Jay American Crow Fish Crow Tree Swallow Northern Rough-winged Swallow Cliff Swallow Barn Swallow Carolina Chickadee Tufted Titmouse White-breasted Nuthatch Brown-headed Nuthatch Carolina Wren House Wren Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Eastern Bluebird Swainson's Thrush Wood Thrush American Robin Gray Catbird Northern Mockingbird Brown Thrasher European Starling American Pipit Cedar Waxwing Northern Parula Yellow Warbler Chestnut-sided Warbler Magnolia Warbler Black-throated Blue Warbler Yellow-rumped Warbler Yellow-throated Warbler Pine Warbler Prairie Warbler Blackpoll Warbler Black-and-white Warbler American Redstart Prothonotary Warbler Ovenbird Northern Waterthrush Common Yellowthroat Canada Warbler Yellow-breasted Chat Summer Tanager Scarlet Tanager Eastern Towhee Chipping Sparrow Field Sparrow Song Sparrow Northern Cardinal Blue Grosbeak Indigo Bunting Red-winged Blackbird Eastern Meadowlark Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird Orchard Oriole Baltimore Oriole House Finch American Goldfinch House Sparrow