Howdy!
#1. On June 20 I did the USGS Truhart BBS in
lower King and Queen COunty in the Middle
Peninsula. This is very diverse habitat
resulting from a network of swamps and rural
roads lined with pine plantations and hardwoods
in various stages of regrowth and miscellaneous
farm fields. It goes from near the town of Ino,
through Dragonville, to near the town of Maacot.
This is a wonderful part of the state and I saw
only 23 cars during the counts all morning. The
USGS survey counts birds for 3 minutes every .5
miles along roads for 50 stops. 883 birds of 94
species were noted. Also calling were lots of
Pine Barrens Tree Frogs, green frogs, bull frogs,
green tree frogs, cope's gray tree frogs, and
northern cricket frogs.
The first number is the total, the second is the
number of sites out of 50. ALl these numbers are
in the normal range except Carolina Wren which
was 50% higher than the previous high and double
the average, brown thrasher (twice the average,
new high) and low numbers of flickers and
grackles. The Cooper's Hawk was a first for the
route which has been surveyed since 1996.
Wood Duck 3/2
Mallard 1/1
Bobwhite 24/19
Green Heron 1/1
(No adults but 2 nestling Great Blue Herons,
fully-featherd, almost ready to leave the nest,
in the rookery at one site. All the other nests
were empty.)
Black Vulture 2/2
Turkey Vulture 15/7
Bald Eagle 1/1
Red-shouldered Hawk 1/1
Coopers Hawk 1/1
Mourning Dove 21/16
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 7/5
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1/1
Belted Kingfisher 1/1
Red-headed Woodpecker 2/2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 4/4
Downy Woodpecker 6/6
Flicker 1/1 lower than normal
Pileated 4/4
Wood-pewee 10/10
Acadian FLycatcher 20/17
E Phoebe 5/4
Great crested Flycatcher 3/3
E Kigbird 1/1
White-eyed Vireo 20/15
Yellow-throated Vireo 4/4
Red-eyed Vireo 74/41
Blue Jay 4/2
American Crow 38/27
Fish Crow 1/1
Tree Swallow 2/1
Barn Swallow 4/1
C. Chickadee 20/13
T. Titmouse 22/18
Wb Nuthatch 1/1
Carolina Wren 32/24 very high
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 27/22
E. Bluebird 9/5
Wood Thrush 16/14
Catbird 4/4
Mockingbird 3/3
Thrasher 11/10 (twice the average)
Starling 1/1 (and no pigeons or house
sparrows..NICE!)
Waxwing 1/1
Parula 9/7 (new high)
Yellow-throated Warbler 2/2
Pine Warbler 31/20
Prairie W 25/18
Black-and-White W 9/8 (tied previous high)
Prothonotary 4/4 one was beating a dragonfly and
removing its wings to feed its youngster 8>D
Ovenbird 41/27
LA Waterthrush 1/1
C. Yellowthroat 41/24
Hooded W 34/24 GORGEOUS!
YB Chat 34/26
Summer Tanager 6/6
Scarlet Tanager 9/7
Towhee 30/20
Chipping Sp 31/20
Field Sparrow 14/10
Cardinal 39/22
Blue Grosbeak 10/10
Indigo Bunting 56/32
Red-winged Blackbird 8/3
Common Grackle 2/2 (new low)
BH Cowbird 9/6
House Finch 3/2
A GOldfinch 6/3
#2. Before starting the count on June 20 I also
surveyed about 4 miles of the route near Ino from
about 4-5 AM for night birds. I found 5
whip-poor-wills, 1 chuck-wills-widow and no owls.
#3. The day before (June 19) I visited a friend's
farm at Mulberry Point along the Rappahannock
River in Richmond COunty on the Northern Neck and
found my first singing Dickcissel for the site.
This property is adjacent to RRVNWR's WIlna Tract
where Dickcissels are also breeders. Also at
Mulberry were 45 singing marsh wrens, 7 singing
coastal plain swamp sparrows, 1 singing willow
flycatcher, 5 singing yellow warblers, 28 singing
yellowthroats, 2 singing chats, 8 orchard
orioles, 10 singing indigo buntings, 6 catbirds,
and 5 blue grosbeaks. This was just a quick
survey for about two hours along the edges and
farm road. I imagine that there were more swamp
sparrows in parts of the marsh i couldn't hear. I
was also interested to see that a copse of
loblolly pines was a nocturnal roosting spot for
bald eagles. The resident pair screamed at the
adults who were roosting there whenever they
arrived, but they seemed to ignore the immatures.
Mike WIlson said the region hosts eagles from
Florida and S Carolina after they are done
breeding as well as local immatures from the
Chesapeake bay. 18 immature and 8 adult bald
eagles roosted in this one patch of pines.
#4. On my property in Leedstown on the 19th I
was saddened to find the feathers of the turkey
that had been brooding eggs in a thicket. Does
this mean I have bobcats too?
There were also two fledgling barred owls here.
#5 Also found several grasshopper sparrows in NNK
and MP over these two days.
ALl the best
Have a great summer
Fred
Frederick D. Atwood fredatwood@xxxxxxxxx
Flint Hill School, 10409 Academic Dr, Oakton, VA 22124
703-242-1675
http://www.agpix.com/fredatwood
http://www.flinthill.org
http://tea.armadaproject.org/tea_atwoodfrontpage.html
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