Hi all,
Mindy and Sherif Baha el Din, friends from Egypt, and I spent three very hot
and humid days on the Eastern Shore. We began at Chincoteague where the best
find was a Curlew Sandpiper amidst a good assortment of shorebirds on the mud
flats (Swan's Cove?)along the road to Tom's Cove Visitor Center. A Clapper Rail
made an appearance from the reeds in Little Tom's Cove. On the causeway into
the town of Chincoteague, we watched a Peregrine Falcon strafe gulls and
shorebirds. In the woods where Brown-headed Nutatches abounded, it was painful
to witness 3 Pine Warblers working feverishly to feed begging cowbirds. A
morning stop the next day at the Eastern Shore Wildlife Refuge featured 4 White
Ibis, 2 adults and 2 juveniles, flying over the marsh, and several Prairie
Warblers in the trees near the butterfly garden. Craney Island was miserable in
the 105 degree heat and our visit was short and not very productive. We crossed
the CBBT twice that day and found Sandwich Terns among the Royals and Commons
on the pilings. On our return, from Island #3, looking toward Fisherman's
Island, we were thrilled to see 5 Wilson's Storm Petrels between 5:30 and 6:30
PM skimming along the water all following the same route through the channel.
We ended our second day at Kiptopeke enjoying the calls of a Northern Bobwhite
in the fields and the squawks of Common Nighthawks overhead. Fortunately, we
got to begin and end our hot, sweaty days at Ned Brinkley's Sterling Inn in
Cape Charles which was delightful and well-worth our trip. Sherif also glimpsed
a Loggerhead Shrike on the telephone wires along Rt. 13 just north of Cape
Charles.
Chincoteague (7/28)
Brown Pelican
DC Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Cattle Egret (riding the ponies)
Glossy Ibis
Canada Goose
Black Duck
Gadwall
TV
Black Vulture
Peregrine Falcon
Northern Bobwhite
Clapper Rail
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Oystercatcher
Black-necked Stilt
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Willet
Spotted Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Curlew Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Gull-billed Tern
Caspian Tern
Forster's Tern
Least Tern
Black Skimmer
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
RT Hummingbird
Red-headed Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Purple Martin
Barn Swallow
American Crow
Fish Crow
Carolina Chickadee
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
Robin
Cedar Waxwing
Pine Warbler
Black-and-White Warbler
Cardinal
Eastern Towhee
Song Sparrow
RW Blackbird
BT Grackle
Common Grackle
Cowbird
Goldfinch
CBBT (7/29)
Terns: Royal, Sandwich, Common, Caspian
Gulls: Herring, G. Black-backed, Laughing
Osprey
Brown Pelican
Sanderling
Spotted Sandpiper
Ruddy Turnstones
Willet
Black Skimmer
Wilson's Storm Petrels
Linda Millington
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