Greetings,
Ian Topolsky and I split Sunday between some Coastal Plain and Piedmont
locations. We birded mostly bodies of water, including Aquia Creek from a
few locations, all in Stafford County, Lake Curtis also in Stafford County, a
couple ponds in Fauquier, and I spent the last ninety minutes of daylight at
Lake Manassas, joined by Sue Heath for about the last thirty minutes.
Aquia Creek has always been a place that I've wanted to dedicate a day of
birding to, but have never gotten around to it. It's a bit tricky to bird as
most of the frontage is privately held. On the ADC map for Stafford County,
there are several boat landings noted on the south side, as well as one park.
We attempted access at most of these spots. Hope Springs Landing was the
first stop, and there wasn't anything unusual here. There was one
still-grayish Mute Swan seen taking off, and a few Double-crested Cormorants.
We headed a bit further upstream to Willow Landing, and had good views of
that portion of the creek. Here we spotted a roosting Black-crowned
Night-Heron on the opposite side of the creek, several Osprey, and a few
Purple Martins and Tree Swallows. We spoke to one local who has property on
the water, and he talked about the Mute Swans, saying that they are present
year-round on the creek. We saw none from that location.
We attempted to get permission to bird from shore at another Marina/Landing,
but were denied. This spot would have given us a look at a large portion of
the creek that we were unable to see from elsewhere. From here we headed
directly to Aquia Landing Park. This small park offers a great look at the
mouth of the creek, and at a portion of the Potomac between Brent Point and
Marlborough Point that is in Virginia. You can also see beyond this area of
river easily into Charles County, MD. This is where we had the three or four
Royal Terns. These birds were well seen, often being pursued by Ring-billed
Gulls for their food. Most often they were over Virginia waters, but clearly
crossed into Charles County a couple times.
Also seen from this location, and entirely in Stafford County, were two
Red-necked Grebes, a Common Loon, a Red-breasted Merganser, many Osprey on
and building nests, a subadult Bald Eagle, a raft of about 200 coot, and a
few gulls, cormorants, and Great Blue Herons. There was surprisingly little
waterfowl at this location.
Lake Curtis had very little, but it can be heavily fished on the weekends by
Homo sapiens. Here we only had about a dozen Bufflehead, some Ruddies,
Ring-neckeds, and cormorants.
Lake Manassas was productive. I got there around five-fifteen. Best bird
here was a Red-throated Loon in complete basic plumage. There were five or
six Red-necked Grebes, and at least fourteen Horned Grebes with three in
solid breeding plumage. A few Pied-billeds were strewn about as well. There
were typically a couple hundred Common Mergansers present, with at least
eight Red-breasted Mergansers mixed in. A few Hooded Mergansers were seen as
well. Pochards were very well represented with all five of the expected
species. Ring-neckeds were the most with about 100-150, the next most
numerous being Lesser Scaup with somewhere around a dozen or two, and rounded
out by Canvasbacks, Redheads, and Greater Scaup with a few of each. Ten
Bufflehead and nine Ruddy Ducks round out the divers. Dabblers included
Gadwall, American Wigeon, Mallards, Black Ducks, and three Blue-winged Teal
drakes. There were not high numbers of any of the dabblers. There were
eighty or so Canada Geese, and Wood Ducks were overhead on several occasions.
Non divers and waterfowl of note were two Bald Eagles (one on the nest),
several Tree and one Northern Rough-winged Swallow, thirteen Great Blue
Herons, most in formation coming in to roost. Gulls were distant, and
presumably all Ring-billeds until they were joined by 28 Bonaparte's Gulls
all in basic plumage.
Miscellaneous birds from Fauquier County included a single Red-necked Grebe
on the pond on Belvoir Road (709). Also present at that location were four
Blue-winged Teal, a dozen Green-winged-teal, a single Lesser Scaup, an adult
male Northern Harrier on a fence post, and some other sundry waterfowl. On
nearby Harrison Road (750), there were many Tree Swallows, a Greater
Yellowlegs, a hen Common Goldeneye (also present one week ago, but not
midweek), four Lesser Scaup, 16 American Wigeon, and a young Bald Eagle
keeping everything alert. Over at Airlie Reservoir there are still a few
hundred Ring-necked Ducks, and they were also joined by the four other
regular pochards. Eight Red-breasted Mergansers were unusual for the
location. Northern Shovelers were seen here and no where else during the
day. There were a pair of Horned Larks, one singing, along Grassdale Road in
Remington.
All told throughout the day twenty-one species of waterfowl was observed on
the piedmont, along one loon and three grebe species. The only likely
waterfowl not seen was Tundra Swan and Northern Pintail. Sea ducks and other
geese are also possible, but unlikely.
Cheers,
Todd
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Todd Day
Jeffersonton, VA
Culpeper County
Blkvulture@xxxxxxx
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