Todd Day and I spent the day Saturday birding the back roads of Brunswick and
Greensville counties and in Emporia, with brief forays into Southampton and
Sussex counties. The main task of the day was to find Bachman's Sparrows, a
task which found us spending hours staring at and in some cases walking through
clearcuts. We dipped on the Bachman's but otherwise had an enjoyable day
highlighted by 3 or 4 Mississippi Kites.
The day brought dozens of Field Sparrows, Yellow-breasted Chats, Indigo
Buntings, Eastern Towhees and Blue Grosbeaks in the clearcuts along with other
interesting birds such as scattered Red-headed Woodpeckers, Northern Parulas,
Black-and-white, Prothonotary, and Kentucky warblers, Cedar Waxwings and Wild
Turkeys in both Brunswick and Southampton counties, an adult Cooper's Hawk in
southeastern Brunswick County, and a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher at its nest along
Three Creek in western Southampton County.
When we entered Emporia it was with the intention of getting lunch and making a
brief stab at finding birds within the city limits. We found more birds than I
expected while walking along a path beside the Meherrin River in a park
accessed off business US 301 (Main St.) where it crosses the river. Besides an
Osprey and a fledgling House Wren, the first Mississippi Kite (an adult)
appeared here, just after I remarked to Todd "...I'm going to go over here and
find a kite." Nice when it works out that way. Later we saw a subadult kite
beside the US 58 bypass on the northeast side of the city, a bird south of US
58 and just east of Emporia that might or might not have been the same adult
seen previously, and another one that remained stubbornly on the Greensville
County side of the Greensville/Sussex county line at Three Creek. What's
interesting is that these kites are well upstream from the traditional Little
Texas area where birders have been finding kites for many years. Together with
the half-dozen we saw at scattered spots in three counties in late May, the
birds at Huntley Meadows and other reports from the last few years, it made us
wonder how many kites there really are nesting in Virginia.
Mike Stinson
Dillwyn, VA
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