Spent an hour this morning, August 3, along Rt 651 (Sumerduck Rd)and Rt
654 south of Remington in Fauquier County per the recent messages about
upland sandpipers and dickcissels. Thanks Val for great directions.
We passed the Remington Turf Farm sign on Rt 651 and before getting to
where Rt 654 turns left, noticed a number of large shorebirds in the
turf field being irrigated on the south side of Sumerduck. We turned
left here and parked on the side of Rt 654 immediately, carefully
crossed over Sumerduck to view 8 upland sandpipers feeding in the turf
field under irrigation. My first in 30 years and first ever in Virginia.
After 10 minutes of scoping the birds, we headed a few hundred yards
further south on Sumerduck, turned right this time on Rt 654 to find the
dickcissels reported earlier and saw a small bird atop a cable tv box?
on the right side of the road approx 100 yards after turning off to Rt
651. It was a singing grasshopper sparrow.
On this stretch of road the first few hundred yards of habitat are very
dry turf grass on the the north side of Rt 654 and very lush soybeans on
the south side. While looking at the sparrow on the north side, we
heard 2 or perhaps 3 dickcissels singing from the soybean field on the
south side. We spent antoher 10 minutes looking for them to no avail.
We continued west on Rt 654 here and got into the weedy pasture Mike
Bowen mentioned and saw some small songbirds-- another grasshopper
sparrow,
a dozen goldfinches feeding on thistle seed, a pair of mourning doves
and their cowbird offspring and a prairie warbler in a large tree in
front of the the smal house on the norht side of Rt 654 before it dead
ends.
You may have hit on something Mike re: dickcissels and soybeans.
We ended up our trip at Neabsco Creek; three Forster's terns, three
great blue herons, a few mallards in eclipse plumage. Turned around and
walked through Julie Metz where the highlights included numerous
catbirds, a pr of rt hummers, a hundred or more mixed swallows roosting
atop dead branches, a colony of a very interesting ground-nesting native
bees (they create small raised mud turrets like some crayfish species)
which greatly resembled small bumblebees, and a pearly eye buttefly. Our
birding ended there when some young people started firing a potato
cannon from the site.
A final note; the past two years, I have heard least flycatchers calling
along Difficult Run in Fairfax County and near my home in southwestern
Loudoun County after June 1. This summer, at least one male has
continued to sing throughout the summer and this morning I had two
singing males within a mile of my home. These birds are singing against
against a background of E woodpewees and Acadian flycatchers. I rarely
find anyone noting the presence of this species during the breeding
season in Virginia. Would appreciate feedback about this species from
anyone doing BBCs in northern Virginia.
A final note; for the past five years, I've been haphazardly monitoring
a breeding group of bobolinks north of Front Royal in Warren County.
The landowner, understanding how marginal they are as breeders in
Virginia, has left a 10 acre pasture of mixed alfalfa, orchard grass and
timothy go until July 20 before mowing it. Two weeks ago, on July 21, I
visited the pasture for the first time this season (the bobolinks return
there the last week of April) and found two small flocks of imms.
female, and male bobolinks in the pasture-- perhaps 40-50 birds. Some of
the males appeared to be molting into winter plumage already.
Craig Tufts
St Louis, Va
NWF's mission is to inspire Americans to protect wildlife for our
children's future.
Craig Tufts - Chief Naturalist
Director of Citizen Science Programs
National Wildlife Federation
11100 Wildlife Center Drive
Reston, VA 20190-5362
www.nwf.org
Phone: 703-438-6438 Fax: 703-438-6468 Cell: 703-608-6726 Email:
tufts@xxxxxxx
www.nwf.org
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