Prompted by the recent report of these shorebird on VA-birds, I went
looking for them today. Both of these locations are at DeLorme 75-D6.
American Golden Plover southeast of Remington (Fauquier Co.) on Grassdale
Road (755), .5 miles north of Sumerduck Road (651). In the field to the
east of the road we found at least seven American Golden Plovers. Seven
maybe the high count so far at this location for this species. (This field
is located behind the only house (white) next to the road.)
At least two plovers were still mostly in breeding plumage, with black
bellies and black undertail coverts. I was impressed with the contrast
between the dark "cap"
and the nape with the adjacent white streaks on the sides of the head.
There were also a number of Killdeers in this field. In the field on the
west side we had Killdeers and E. Meadowlarks.
Buff-breasted Sandpiper (Culpeper Co.) on Newbys Shop Road, .2 miles north
of Kelly's Ford Road
(Same location as reported on Aug. 25 & 26 by Todd Day.)
We saw two Buff-breasted Sandpiper, out in the field at some distance,
picked them up with the binoculars, but you really need the scope to study
them properly.
Also, 50-100 Killdeers, but no other shorebirds. Two tractors were working
this field. I would assume that the shorebirds will stay away from where
the tractors are actively working, but will probably move to areas recently
disturbed by the tractors. So the shorebirds may move around some.
NO Upland Sandpipers were found even though we spent some time looking over
the turf in the many fields of the Woodward Turf Farm, in both counties.
I would only estimate only 200 Killdeers at all locations, but there are
fields at some distance away that you can not get a good look at them.
David Bridge
BridgeDavid@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
