Greets...
Alex Merritt and I did a day-trip jaunt to Craney Island, the CBBT, and a bit
of the Eastern Shore. The bird in the subject line was the best bird of the
day.
We arrived in the Hampton Roads area around ten-forty-five AM. We were
greeted with about a twenty-five minute wait to get onto I-664 due to the
Rumble in the Tunnel, a long motorcycle event that had traffic blocked for a
bit. Not unpleasant, but I'm glad I wasn't doing a big day or chasing a
Heermann's Gull.
We hit Craney at about eleven-thirty and were done around one PM. There
isn't much happening there. The only concentration of gulls was around the
business end of the dredge spoils pipe. Fifty or sixty birds, mostly Herring
Gulls and Great Black-backeds. Not a Laughing Gull to be found, nor the
sought after Franklin's Gull. We drove the perimeter of the impoundments and
the cross dikes, finding little. Six Pectoral Sandpipers were along the
north edge, and there were two groups of Black-bellieds, seven at the north
east corner of the middle impoundment, and ten in a pool on the west side.
We would see a few clusters of Least Sandpipers here and there. A few
Savannah Sparrows, a couple of Horned Larks, and at least one Palm Warbler
were about. One or two Harriers too. Ducks are starting to amass, mostly
Shovelers, Ruddies, a few Gadwall, and some Green-winged Teal. Not much else
happening.
Next we scoured Bridge-Tunnel Islands Two, Three, and Four. The Clay-colored
was on the east side of two, near the entrance onto the highway. Junco,
House Wren, and Song Sparrow were the other three passerines on Island Two.
Two young Great Cormorants were there as well, along with a decent flock of
about thirty Sanderling. Winds were out of the southwest, and there was
little flying about the mouth of the bay. No scoter lines, no gulls, no
terns. Islands Three and Four netted little, about the most interesting
thing was running into Ben Copeland on Three who reported no songbirds from
Island Four. We should have heeded his advice, as our thirty minutes coughed
up a single Myrtle Warbler and three more Great Cormorants. Island Three did
have a female Eastern Towhee, Common Yellowthroat, and a Marsh Wren.
Next plan was a ride up Route 600 all the way to Oyster, and then back south,
hitting Arlington Road and Custis Tomb, checking wires the whole way. Lots
of American Kestrels along the lines, and four Eurasian Collared-Doves at
their haunt near the intersection of 600 and 645.
Cheers...
Todd
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Todd M. Day
Jeffersonton, VA
Culpeper County
BlkVulture@xxxxxxx
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