Good Morning! On my way back home from Leedstown yesterday I stopped at several places in King George Co. I was rushed at 3 of the 5 stops since it was after sunset there. The waterfowl have started to return, with over 3500 Canada Geese as well as an injured Tundra Swan (Has it been here all summer?) Other waterfowl were gadwall, wigeon, wood duck, 273 ring-necked ducks, a lesser scaup, 236 ruddies, a couple blacks and some mallards as well as 27 pied-billed grebes, 1 horned grebe, and 284 coot. The red-winged blackbirds were gathering in the tops of some Loblollies where a few were eating the seeds from the cones, but the majority were eating the tiny midges that swarmed in clouds of thousands above the branches and perched on the needles and in/on the cones. Several Barn Swallows (my latest record since starting eBird) and a Lincoln's Sparrow were along Cleve Rd near Dogue where I also found a Swarovsky binoculars lens cover. If you lost it let me know and I will get it to you. Glad to see that other people are birding this excellent road too. The entire list of 53 species is below. The number in the parentheses is the number of ebird lists (out of 5) on which it occurred. I hope you have a great week. Fred Canada Goose 3,580 (5) Tundra Swan 1 Wood Duck 1 Gadwall 54 (2) about 50/50 male/female American Wigeon 7 about 50/50 male/female American Black Duck 2 Mallard 20 Ring-necked Duck 273 (3) about 50/50 male/female Lesser Scaup 1 male Ruddy Duck 236 (4) about 50/50 male/female Pied-billed Grebe 27 (2) Horned Grebe 1 American Kestrel 1 American Coot 284 (2) Killdeer 2 (2) heard Wilson's Snipe 1 Laughing Gull 140 (2) Mourning Dove 5 Barred Owl 1 Belted Kingfisher 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 5 (2) Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1 Downy Woodpecker 4 (2) Northern Flicker 5 (2) Pileated Woodpecker 1 Eastern Phoebe 1 Blue-headed Vireo 1 Blue Jay 10 American Crow 4 Tree Swallow 4 Barn Swallow 6 this is the latest I have seen them since entering birds in eBird. Carolina Chickadee 7 (2) Tufted Titmouse 4 Carolina Wren 7 (2) Golden-crowned Kinglet 3 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 5 (2) Eastern Bluebird 4 (2) Gray Catbird 1 Northern Mockingbird 8 (4) Brown Thrasher 1 European Starling 25 Palm Warbler 3 (all Yellow) Lagrange Lane Pine Warbler 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler 40 (2) Chipping Sparrow 3 Field Sparrow 1 Savannah Sparrow 5 (3) Song Sparrow 8 (3) Lincoln's Sparrow 1 Cleve Rd Swamp Sparrow 9 White-throated Sparrow 7 Northern Cardinal 14 (3) Red-winged Blackbird 265 (4) 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