Greetings,
Ian Topolsky and I spent Sunday birding around the southern tip of the
Eastern Shore after driving down Saturday night. We stayed at the Peacock,
which
remains the same as it has been for years (relatively inexpensive, clean, and
showers that would have been too short for Herve Villechaize). Ian was riveted
to the TV, watching the Red Sox get pounded. It was pretty windy most of the
day Sunday, probably around 15mph or so out of the west, maybe more at times,
maybe a bit less. There were birds everywhere, especially on the eastern side
of the peninsula. Many swallows and icterid flocks, as well as lots of
warblers, seemingly all Myrtles. Hard to identify the swallows, as most were
pretty high. The few hundred we were able to lay our eyes on well were all
Tree
Swallows.
We spent an hour or so along Magotha Road; later we checked wires along Route
600 and its side roads, as far north as Oyster, and also on the west side of
US 13 along Arlington Road and its tributaries. Nothing to note along wires
aside from two Eurasian Collared-Doves at their typical haunt. We caught up
with Sam Stuart on the hawk platfom and heard about the Swainson's Hawk. We
spent some time later in the day searching for this bird, predictably to no
avail.
We walked the Butterfly Trail at Eastern Shore of Virginia NWR in late
afternoon, and continued past the Visitor Center, onto 600, and back to the
car.
It was a beautiful afternoon for it, sunny and breezy, with gorgeous color in
the meadow. We gave the CBBT Islands a scrub too.
The incomplete list:
At Magotha Road:
3 Virginia Rails calling (one seen)
4-6 Brown-headed Nuthatches
1 Pileated Woodpecker
1 Yellow-breasted Chat
20-24 Swamp Sparrows
Scores of Myrtle Warblers
1 House Wren
1 Black-throated Blue Warbler
CBBT:
Island 4: 12 Sanderling, 20 Ruddy Turnstones, 15 Laughing Gulls, 300 Herring
Gulls, 30 Ring-billed Gulls, 100 Great Black Backed Gulls, one Mourning Dove,
one Western Palm Warlber, 40 Tree Swallows. Easily ninety-five percent of the
gulls were adults.
Island 3: no effot to count gulls here; overwhelmingly adults. One Swamp
Sparrow that seems unable to fly, one Song Sparrow, one White-throated Sparrow.
On the ocean side of the island, there is more vegetation than I've ever
noted over the wall behind the guardrail, growing up from where the rocks meet
the
concrete, and sticking up a little over the parking lot edge. Unfortunate is
the inability to see birds here, as you can't get to a location to view them,
and stepping over the guardrail isn't an option. The White-throated Sparrow
was calling from here, and the Song Sparrow retreated to this area when
flushed.
Island 2: a couple thousand gulls; one Marsh Wren, one Savannah Sparrow, one
Mourning Dove, and one Chipping Sparrow, 50 Tree Swallows.
Island 1: too many people; nine Oystercatchers.
The long walk at the Butterfly Trail produced very little of interest, but
the number of Yellow-rumpeds was pretty cool. Hundreds though, not thousands.
It was delightful having the open sky to search for raptors. We had Peregrine
Falcon, Merlin, Kestrel, Red-tailed, Broad-winged, Cooper's, Sharp-shinned,
Osprey, and Northern Harrier here.
Always great to get to the Eastern Shore in fall.
Cheers,
Todd
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Todd Michael Day
Jeffersonton, Virginia, USA
Culpeper County
BlkVulture@xxxxxxx
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