Greetings to all:
On Monday morning Mike Boatwright and myself meet at Adam D'Onofrio's house at
04:30 hours at a trip to several places in the tidewater area. The first thing
that Mike and I heard was the Chuck-will's-widow calling from near Adam's house.
The first stop that we made was at the Dismal Swamp were we heard several
singing warblers including Swainson's and Mike even got a brief look at one.
On to two stops in Norfolk where we were meet by Ned Brinkley to help us find
hopefully Gray-cheeked, Bicknell's and Swainson's Thrushes. We had some great
views and heard some singing of both the Gray-cheeked and the Swainson's. No
luck on the Bicknell's.
Our next stop was Craney. Which was a big disappointment. Even though we got
several birds for the year the number of birds were few and several species not
even seen. There were a few White-rumped Sandpipers, Short-billed Dowitchers
along with Dunlin, Semipalmated, Least and one Western Sandpiper. The bird of
the day was a Peregrine Falcon that was out looking for lunch and made a close
pass giving us some GREAT LOOKS. Osprey nests were everywhere and most had
chicks that you could see.
Leaving Craney our next stop was the Colonial Parkway for me to add the Purple
Gallinule to my state list. After nearly an hour we a NO SHOW by the PG.
However, we did add a Cattle Egret to the list of what we saw along with our
first NRWS for the day.
On the way home we stopped by Sunken Meadow to show it to Adam and we found
about 15 Mute Swans.
We ended up with a total of 107 species for the day and I was able to add
another one for my trip when a Barred Owl flew across in front of me just
before I reached Clarksville.
Good birding always
Jeff Blalock
South Boston, VA
(434) 470-8071
jcbabirder@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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