All,
On the Chesapeake beaches and in some small flooded fields on the south
side of Cape Charles town the numbers and diversity of shorebirds has
been building this week. On Monday we had several Greater Yellowlegs and
a pectoral sandpiper. On Tuesday we added two spotted sandpipers, three
ruddy turnstones and five lesser yellowlegs to the mix. Yesterday two
short-billed dowitchers appeared along with at least nine least
sandpipers. This morning all of the above were present plus another
pectoral sandpiper and the first semi-palmated plover of the "fall"
season. At least two dozen killdeer share this habitat, and hundreds of
gulls - laughing, herring, great black-backed - spend time in the small
(one to two acre) fresh-water puddles. Four least terns were fishing
over one of the golf course ponds yesterday and most of the local herons
- great blue, great egret, snowy, little blue, tri-colored, cattle and
yellow-crowned night heron - have been seen in the last two days, plus
two glossy ibis near the landfill at Oyster.
Tom Saunders
Cape Charles
