Howdy!
I spent the last couple days in the Northern Neck
and King William county (Middle Peninsula)
getting things organized for the christmas bird
counts. I don't have time to write the whole
list, but here are the highlights.
1. 4 species of geese in northern neck
yesterday Dec 15: 1 Cackling and 1 White-fronted
among a few thousand Canadas in a farm field and
adjacent pond in King George along route 3, and 1
snow goose at George Washington's Birthplace. My
first VA Cackling Goose.
2. Looked for the short-eared owls in late
afternoon to dusk yesterday Dec 15 at Mothershead
(RRVNWR) in Leedstown. No SEOW but did see
orange-crowned warbler there, only the second
time I have seen it in VA, both times in the NNK.
3. Ring-necked duck and most other duck numbers
were a little lower this week, but canvasback and
merganser numbers were up with 58 canvasbacks in
King George, 143 hooded mergs from King George Co
to Singerly Pond(68 here) on Rte 624 in Richmond
County, 10 red-breasted mergansers in the
Rappahannock in Leedstown, and 5 common
mergansers at George Washington's Birthplace.
GWBP also had good numbers of gadwalls (97) but
still not many tundra swans (15). Laughing Gull
numbers have plummeted since my last visit; I saw
only 20 all day, instead of a couple thousand.
4. In King William County today Dec 16 the
highlight was large numbers of pintails (615) in
The Pocket where there were also 39 green-winged
teal, 6 pied-billed grebe, 91 coot, and 10
shovellers. Across The Pocket was a large roost
of 155 black vultures (no turkey vultures). 3
Wilson's Snipe and a lesser yellowlegs were at
the VDGIF boat ramp nearby.
5. Sparrows included towhee, junco,
white-crowned, whte-throated, field, swamp, song,
savannah, and fox but no chipping. Gobs of
cardinals.
It's bedtime
I hope you all have a great time on your
Christmas Bird Counts!
Fred
=====
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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