Hola,
Saturday I made the long, looping day trip to the southern tip of the
Northampton County and then up to Chincoteague with Sue Heath and my dad,
Mike. We
met in Opal at four-thirty AM, and had Sue back to her car by about
nine-thirty PM.
First birding stop was CBBT Island 1 at about seven-thirty AM. If there's
any good to not being able to bird the northern three islands, its the ability
to get to the shore earlier as the lure to stop on all four islands no
longer exists. We pulled into Kiptopeke State Park around eight, with a
really
ragged notion that we'd look for the Mac Gillivray's Warbler banded there
earlier in the week. With the hunting going on at the state park, and some of
the
better habitat for this bird being around the banding nets, we opted to not
look for it. Instead we parked ourselves at the platform for an enjoyable
hour or so. Best bird we saw here was the likely Baltimore Oriole that popped
out of the wax myrtle in front of the platform. We had a siskin among the
hoards of finch flocks that passed, and thousands and thousands of blackbirds
flying south, as well as many hundreds of robins. The hawk flight was a
little slow and mostly accipiters. There were a few White-crowned Sparrows
nearby, some under the feeder, and my first-of-fall Fox Sparrow.
We left the state park, and drifted over to the Eastern Shore of Virginia
National Wildlife Refuge and spent just a few minutes here, as they were open
for deer hunting as well. We checked the pond at the end of Ramp Road and the
one next to the visitor's center for swallows, and found none. We headed to
the GATR tract, and finding no hunters here, walked around for a bit hoping
for roosting owls. No owls, and relatively birdless in the woods, but we did
have a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.
We drove slowly along Route 600 hoping for something on a wire, but to no
avail. We worked a big flock of blackbirds for a half hour or so, but didn't
pull out anything unexpected. Popped into Magotha Road for a bit, found a low
tide, and that suggested we should head up to Oyster and Willis Wharf and
see what was about.
The tide was rising at Oyster, but we still managed a few Oystercatchers
here, but not much else by way of shorebirds. We headed north, and had what
was
our best sighting of the day on Route 600 at the Northampton County
landfill. A juvenile Golden Eagle was at the bottom of a low kettle of
vultures.
This bird wasn't much above the tree tops, and was making lazy circles just
over our heads and perfectly lit. Its uncommon in Virginia to get views this
close and prolonged of this species, especially so on the coast. The bird
gained a little altitude, and then pulled its wings in, and stooped on
something
at the landfill. It landed on the pile for a few seconds before taking
flight empty-taloned and attracting an angry squad of puny little crows.
They
mobbed the eagle for a few minutes before losing interest. The bird then was
fairly distant and we split. It certainly cost us some precious daylight
minutes, but so worthwhile.
Willis Wharf was also on a rising tide, and we probably only had a few
minutes to spare before the shorebirds were pushed to dryer ground. Here were
a
hundred or so Marbled Godwits, more many more Willets, and a few score of
Dunlin, and a couple of Forster's Terns.
Next up was Chincoteague, and we had to race the falling sun to get there
with enough time to scrutinize the geese and shorebirds. We hit Swan Cove
first, and there was a flock of about fifty Skimmers, and several hundred Snow
Geese, but no runts. The rest of the Snow Geese were inside the wildlife
loop,
and there were many thousand here, and good numbers of shorebirds, including
a few hundred Dunlin, a few Greater Yellowlegs, and a few Long-billed
Dowitchers. Among the geese we were able to find only one Ross's. We left
after
sunset, and as we were leaving, the entire mass of Snow Geese got up and made
quite a stir, and creating an opaque cloud just over the horizon. Certainly
a memorable sight.
We headed home via Maryland, and it took nearly exactly four hours from
Chincoteague to Opal, with one ten minute stop.
Cheers,
Todd
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Todd Michael Day
Jeffersonton, VA, USA
blkvulture@xxxxxxx
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