VA-Birders,
This afternoon was my first opportunity to try for the RED-NECKED PHALAROPE
discovered yesterday by Kurt Gaskill at Dyke, and ended up having a very
enjoyable time. As I was approaching Hunting Creek, a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK
passed low over the trees.
I first stopped at the flats inside the stone bridge because the tide was
rising quickly, and found good numbers of peeps and other birds. Best birds
here were an adult hendersoni SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER probing the mud, four
WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPERS, and a juvenile WESTERN SANDPIPER.
Later at the picnic area, I was joined by Sherman Suter and we had a good time
picking out birds. We observed a couple of LEAST TERNS hunting over the SAV,
and two AMERICAN COOTS midway out. Sherman spotted a few more shorebirds on
the far mats and one of them turned out to be the PHALAROPE. Good save! I was
later able to find a nice juvenile COMMON TERN foraging alone over the closest
mats, but no Black Terns today. By the way, I think the GREEN HERON in the
picnic area might be nearly tame. It appeared to be eyeing me for a handout
from 6 feet away! An enjoyable hour at Dyke for sure.
OFF TOPIC: For all of you listers out there, a JABIRU was discovered today in
Mississippi, which represents the 10th ABA record for this humungous stork from
Latin America. Perhaps a displaced hurricane bird from last week. I have seen
several of them in Paraguay and they are spectacular birds to say the least -
140 cm tall and white with a black head and neck, with a red collar.
Below is this afternoon's list from Dyke:
Take Care,
Jay Keller,
Arlington
Canada Goose 22
Mallard 35
Pied-billed Grebe 1
Double-crested Cormorant 12
Great Blue Heron 6
Great Egret 5
Green Heron 1
Osprey 4
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
American Coot 2
Killdeer 3
Greater Yellowlegs 10
Lesser Yellowlegs 35
Semipalmated Sandpiper 35
Western Sandpiper 1
Least Sandpiper 8
White-rumped Sandpiper 4
Short-billed Dowitcher 1
Red-necked Phalarope 1
Laughing Gull 425
Ring-billed Gull 15
Great Black-backed Gull 1
Caspian Tern 8
Common Tern 1
Forster's Tern 18
Least Tern 2
Rock Pigeon 12
Mourning Dove 9
Chimney Swift 9
American Crow 3
Fish Crow 1
Tree Swallow 2
Carolina Wren 1
American Robin 2
Northern Mockingbird 2
European Starling 30
Cedar Waxwing 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
Northern Cardinal 1
Blue Grosbeak 1
Red-winged Blackbird 6
Common Grackle 4
House Finch 1
American Goldfinch 22
House Sparrow 17
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)
