You wrote:
What was surprising to me was the lack of snow geese and other waterfowl.
Snow Goose pool held only 5 snows when I drove the wildlife drive. One
sizable flock flew over, but I did not see where they landed.
Mark, that is indeed interesting - I was with a small group of birders in
Chincoteague the weekend of October 14-16. When we arrived Friday and did the
loop late that afternoon, we saw only 6 snow geese, total.
However, by late Sunday afternoon and Monday morning, great skeins of snow
geese were flying in, and most of the flocks of Canada geese in the refuge were
mixed with snow geese (some dark phase). I assumed we were watching the
beginning of their arrival, but perhaps they moved on.
Other treats were black skimmers, oystercatchers (on the boat-landing flat
along the causeway), a yellow-billed cuckoo behind the motel, and probably most
of the world's population of yellow-rumped warblers. We counted 90 species,
including black-throated green warblers, tricolored heron, several bald eagles
(one circling above the Chincoteague lighthouse), a not a few merlins. CBBT
Island #1 surprised us with numerous ruddy turnstones frequenting the asphalt
parking lot.
Leni Friedman
Arlington
