"Yeah! Kiptopeke!" as Walter Smith used to say every year in his letters
announcing the new season.
Kiptopeke, Virginia, September 4-6, 2004. Liz & Harry Armistead. Three
days of continuous, strong as well as increasingly strong northeast winds
and skies that were largely overcast did not make for much of a passerine
flight.
Sat., Sep. 4. For this early in the season a very good raptor flight as
recorded by Hawk Counter Sam Stuart: 163 individuals comprising 11 species
and including 5 Bald Eagles, 1 Merlin, 2 peregrines, 80 kestrels, 52
Ospreys, 9 Cooper's Hawks, 8 harriers, and 6 Broad-winged Hawks plus
numerous Turkey and Black vultures as well as a few Red-tailed Hawks (these
3 latter species, considered locals, were not counted in the total). Bald
Eagles were almost continually in sight, often at low altitude, and many
sightings were considered local birds and did not figure in the tally
either. Zach Smith is the Hawk Trapper this season and captured a Cooper's
Hawk while we were there.
Best of all was a Sandhill Crane that flew out of the south bugling and
passed so low it was seen not only from the hawk watching platform but also
back in the woods at the songbird station and by Zach Smith from his blind.
Unaware that it had been seen once or twice within the previous few days,
I lost some of the wind out of my sails after having spotted it initially
today. With the corn harvest going on and what I hope will be some
consequent spillage perhaps the crane will stick around. We have never had
one on the Cape Charles Christmas Bird Count here.
As has been my habit for every Labor Day Weekend for the past 22 or so
years (except for 2001, when I spent the weekend in my boat up in the Watts
Island area) I did counts of birds at Best Western-Sunset Beach Inn from 6
- 8 A.M. each day, with these meagre results for selected species (the 3
numbers represent September 4, 5 & 6 respectively):
Double-crested Cormorant 365, 485, 550. Brown Pelican 250, 225, 225.
Great Blue Heron 3, 9, 7. Cattle Egret 0, 0, 0. American Black Duck 9, 0,
0. Green-winged Teal 0, 0, 1. Wood Duck 0, 0, 5. Bald Eagle 0, 2, 2.
Osprey 3, 5, 6. Merlin 0, 0, 2. Willet 2, 2, 3. Black Skimmer 4, 0, 0.
Eastern Kingbird 39, 30, 1. Barn Swallow 22, 30, 215. Fish Crow (flying
south, usually they have gone the other way) 200, 294, 45. warblers
(unidentified flybys) 12, 20, 4. Bobolink 20, 6, 30. Baltimore Oriole 4,
2, 1.
With good weather conditions hundreds of kingbirds, Bobolinks, and warblers
pass over the gaps in the trees on the bluff here, dozens of orioles, and
formerly hundreds of Cattle Egrets did. Maybe next year. In the past
there were also counts of over 1,000 Fish Crows.
Sun., Sept. 5. Good Purple Martin flight today. Bob Anderson, Thuy Tran,
Liz and I sepnt 2 hours sorting through the shorebirds just north of
Capeville Road and c. 1/3 miles east of Sting-Ray's/Cape Center and Route
13. This is a small field that had been disked and has considerable
standing water. Clumps of earth often conceal many of the birds but they
flush every so often allowing an easy check for White-rumped Sandpipers
(which we failed to find).
We did find: 3 Greater & 25 Lesser Yellowlegs, 7 Killdeer, 2 Semipalmated
Plovers, 1 Baird's, 6 Western, 65 Least, 30 Semipalmated, 55 Pectoral, 1
Solitary and 2 Stilt Sandpipers. Recently White-rumped & Spotted
sandpipers and Black-bellied Plovers have also been seen here. Many of the
birds are close to the road and not skitterish at all. Others are
concealed by grasses and dirt or out of sight in the far reaches of the
field as it stretches to the northwest. Also seen here: 2 Great Egrets, a
Red-tailed Hawk, 3 Ospreys, and an ad. Bald Eagle. No dowitchers have been
seen here. Scores of Tree Swallows and a few Barns work the air space over
the wet areas and 15 or so Rock Doves also frequent the area.
The nearby Capeville United Methodist Church has an extensive graveyard
full of venerable names from the area including Heath, Bull, and Horner.
There was a large headstone that simply read: Small Pooh Bear. Another
had a wooden model Blue Jay next to it with wings that were spinning in the
wind.
Another wet field with a large temporary pond and bare earth also lies on
the north side of Capeville Road but c. 1/2 mile west of Route 13. Liz and
I checked this very briefly on Mon., Sept. 6 and found several yellowlegs,
dozens of peep, 12 or so Semipalmated Plovers and a few dozen Canada Geese.
No doubt a careful search here would reveal much more.
Up to 4 Eurasian Collared Doves have been seen along Route 600. Go
straight east across Route 13 from the south terminus of Arlington Road,
which becomes Cedar Grove Road east of 13 and makes a T-junction with Route
600. Look north (especially) and south from here on Route 600. Early in
the day is, I believe, the best time.
After days of strong NE winds I would have thought some Hudsonian Godwits,
Buff-breasted Sandpipers, and golden plovers might have been blown
off-course from their oceanic migration routes but I did not hear of any.
Jethro Runco has made a great start in mid-August banding mist-netted birds
at Kiptopeke State Park and has already captured these species, which are
uncommonly encountered here as banded birds: Seaside and Grasshopper
sparrows, Golden-winged, Mourning, Blue-winged and Hooded warblers, Orchard
Oriole, et al.
Headin' home. Bumper stickers (these both sporting the Confederate flag):
American by birth, southern by the grace of God. The second one, on the
same car: Redneck, heritage not hate. On another car: Jesus is a
liberal. 250 Canada Geese in a group over Route 13 five miles s. of Dover,
Delaware.
Best to all.-Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA
19119-1225. 215-248-4120. Please, any off-list replies to:
harryarmistead at hotmail dot com
You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
