The FAS trip to the Great Marsh at Mason Neck was almost rained out this
Saturday morning. Bob Shipman showed up in the nick of 7:30 so the two of us
decided to forego the two mile round tripper out to the marsh and go check on
the Brant - as it was dripping, and Bob didn't have a VA Brant - this seemed
like a plan.
We were greeted at the visitor center by two Bald Eagles perched in a snag -
just to the right of the center...one adult and one imm. After a bit of
searching, we located the Brant just to the left of the center, alone among
the Ruddies. With the hunters blasting away, I did have some concern that the
Brant might wind up a Brandt...but reports seem to indicate it made it
through the day. Among the 1000 or so Ruddies, we managed to pick up about 12
Bufflehead, 4 Redhead, 1 Canvasback and numerous Lesser Scaup. On the walk,
we did well w. Woodpeckers, tallying Red-Bellied, Hairy, Downy, No. Flicker,
a pair of Pileateds and a surprise appearance by an immature Red-headed WP
that Bob picked up in a dead snag near the boardwalk. A nice visit from a
Hermit Thrush that flew into a tree directly in front of us as we watched the
ducks along with some Song and WT sparrows helped to round out a list of 32
species. A pretty pleasant way to spend a drippy Saturday a.m...Rich Rieger
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