I spent the day (Sunday) exploring the northern
part of the Northern Neck in Westmoreland and
Richmond Counties. The morning was spent on the
Rappahannock River side. The afternoon was on the
Potomac River side. The wind made the waves
choppy, especially in the Potomac, so duck
visibility there was difficult. Duck and goose
numbers were low compared to earlier in the
winter in both the rivers and the ponds. On the
Rapahannock side I visited two private farms
(Troy Farm and Mulberry Island) as well as
Leedstown and all the road-end landings (Layton
Landing, Harts Landing, Fones Cliffs, Jones Creek
Landing, and Naylors). ALso visited the ponds in
Leedstown, Singerly, a mill pond near Warsaw and
another on Horner's Mill Rd. On the Potomac side
I visited Nomini Creek (found almost nothing),
Currioman Landing, Westmoreland State Park and
George Washington's Birthplace. Pine warblers
were singing throughout. A few Ospreys were back
but not everywhere. Some of the Bald Eagles were
sitting on nests. The late afternoon light
shining on the trumpeting swans and on the flock
of 28 turkeys grazing in the open field, both at
GW Birthplace, were the most memorable parts of
the day. Huge flocks of robins were in some of
the fields near GW Birthplace. The rarest bird
was the female Brewer's Blackbird among cattle
and other blackbirds on a private farm(Mulberry).
3 Horned Grebe (Potomac)
12 Double-crested Cormorant (Rap. fishing weirs)
17 Great Blue Heron (mosty near Rap. weirs)
16 American Merganser (Rap Riv, GWBirthplace)
130 Red-breasted Merg (all in Rap. R)
7 Hooded Merganser
80 Canvasback (Currioman)
250 Scaup sp (GW Birthplace)
99 Ring-necked Duck (75 GWBirthplace, 22
Singerly)
2110 Ruddy Duck (10 in Rap; 2100@ Westmoreland
SP)
96 Bufflehead (75 @GWBirthplace)
65 Mallard
17 Black Duck
9 Green-winged Teal (Mulberry)
2 Wood Duck (Leeedstown pond)
7 American Wigeon (Leedstown pond)
25 Canada Goose
374 Tundra Swan (350 GW Birthplace, 24 Currioman)
2 Mute Swan (Currioman)
5 Osprey
16 adult,12 imm Bald Eagle
5 Red-tailed Hawk
4 Red-shouldered Hawk
2 Sharp-shinned Hawk
4 Kestrel
2 Killdeer
3 Snipe
28 Wild Turkey (GW Birthplace)
20 Meadowlark
3 Horned Lark
4 eastern phoebe
100-150 Bluebirds
2600 Robins
12 Pine Warbler
100-150 Song Sparrow
100-150 Junco
100-150 White-throated Sparrow
13 WHite-crowned Sparrow
1 Fox sparrow
4 field sparrow
15 swamp sparrow
1 winter wren singing beautifully
30 Rusty Balckbird
1 female Brewer's Blackbird with 30 cowbird and
150 red-winged blackbird
miscellaneous other birds
Frogs singing were many spring peepers and a few
pickerel and leopard frogs.
Shadbush in bloom.
=====
Frederick D. Atwood fredatwood@xxxxxxxxx
Flint Hill School, 10409 Academic Dr, Oakton, VA 22124
703-242-1675
http://www.agpix.com/fredatwood
http://www.flinthill.org
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