Hello VA-Birders,
I spent the morning in Prince William County, starting at Belmont Bay, walking
the trails of Occoquan Bay NWR, and finishing doing a driving tour of the
Lorton area, one of the locations for the upcoming Fort Belvoir CBC.
Highlights at Belmont Bay were 2 GREATER SCAUP among the Lessers and several
SHOVELERS. There were plenty of ducks on the other side of the bay but the low
light made it impossible to tell what they were.
Occoquan was fairly birdy. Highlight here was a very late HOUSE WREN pished up
near the river at the northeast corner. WINTER WRENS were in decent numbers as
well. A CANVASBACK was observed among the many LESSER SCAUP, an AMERICAN PIPIT
was noted flying overhead, and a FOX SPARROW and WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW were
seen and heard.
Later, I drove around Lorton looking for areas left to bird, and I was
dumbfounded at the number of houses that went up since last year. It went from
basically rural to basically suburban in that time. I was still able to add an
AMERICAN KESTREL hunting from a wire to bring my morning total to 66 species.
Lists and numbers are below.
Jay Keller,
Arlington
BELMONT BAY
Canada Goose 325
Mallard 35
Northern Shoveler 8
Ring-necked Duck 5
Greater Scaup 2
Lesser Scaup 175
Bufflehead 5
Hooded Merganser 12
Ruddy Duck 25
Pied-billed Grebe 2
Great Blue Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 2
American Coot 275
Laughing Gull 2
Ring-billed Gull 45
Herring Gull 3
Great Black-backed Gull 9
Rock Pigeon 8
Mourning Dove 4
Belted Kingfisher 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
American Crow 15
Fish Crow 5
American Robin 5
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling 45
Cedar Waxwing 8
Red-winged Blackbird 15
Brown-headed Cowbird 6
House Sparrow 8
OCCOQUAN BAY NWR
Canada Goose 225
Mallard 5
Canvasback 1
Lesser Scaup 450
Bufflehead 3
Ruddy Duck 150
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Black Vulture 5
Turkey Vulture 2
Bald Eagle 3
Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 3
Red-tailed Hawk 2
American Coot 2
Ring-billed Gull 35
Herring Gull 3
Great Black-backed Gull 3
Mourning Dove 12
Belted Kingfisher 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 3
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 2
Pileated Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay 4
American Crow 25
Fish Crow 18
Carolina Chickadee 4
Tufted Titmouse 2
Brown Creeper 1
Carolina Wren 3
House Wren 1
Winter Wren 3
Golden-crowned Kinglet 3
Eastern Bluebird 22
Hermit Thrush 1
American Robin 4
Northern Mockingbird 2
European Starling 225
American Pipit 1
Cedar Waxwing 185
Eastern Towhee 2
Field Sparrow 12
Savannah Sparrow 1
Fox Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 18
Swamp Sparrow 14
White-throated Sparrow 45
White-crowned Sparrow 1
Dark-eyed Junco 3
Northern Cardinal 8
Red-winged Blackbird 375
Brown-headed Cowbird 6
House Finch 18
American Goldfinch
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