We had a great day at Henricus/Dutch Gap. Fifteen birders showed up on a
beautiful, warm spring day to greet new migrating arrivals and discover our
locals who are already breeding in the park.
As we were marshalling at the gate, waiting to enter the park, an Osprey made
several passes at a dead branch on one of the nearby trees, eventually
succeeding in breaking it off and carrying it to its nest. It followed up with
talons full of vegetation. At the first marsh overlook, we found a single
gosling cruising around with two adult Canada Geese. We also had distant views
of two Great Horned Owlets across the marsh in a snag that has been used by
that species for three successive years. Male Red-winged Blackbirds were making
a show as well.
Prothonotary Warblers arrived back in our area earlier this week. Several were
heard singing early on in the walk, but proved difficult to spot. The same was
true for singing Yellow-throated Warblers, though some participants did succeed
in getting brief looks at the river overlook beyond the historical area. Our
wintering Yellow-rumped Warblers have molted into their breeding plumage and
were singing all over the park, tuning up for their trip north. There was one
lingering Ruby-crowned Kinglet doing the same practice. It also felt a little
unusual to hear the Savannah Sparrows singing their insect-like songs from the
fence-line along the trail behind the visitor center.
We visited the heronry that is visible just past the footbridge over the
channel to the oxbow lagoon. There were Great Blue Heron chicks in several
nests, and Double-crested Cormorants were also now on nests in the same trees.
From this vantage, we got excellent looks at a Prothonotary Warbler checking
out one of the nest boxes.
On the trail that winds from the bridge over the channel to the lagoon to the
remnant bald cypress grove, we found Pileated, Red-bellied and Red-headed
woodpeckers, as well as several singing Prothonotaries. In a special treat, as
we walked back out to the main trail, we noticed a female Wood Duck flopping
about in the mud - we eventually worked out that this was a distraction display
when we noticed ducklings spilling one at a time out of a nearby nest box and
trailing after Mom.
We had several Killdeer and a trio of vocal Greater Yellowlegs, which we got
fairly good looks at from Twin Rock Spur. There was a bit of excitement at one
point when a Sharp-shinned Hawk made an attempt at one of the Killdeer -
unsuccessful, as it happened. We heard a Red-shouldered Hawk calling at one
point, and had a soaring Red-tailed Hawk toward the end of the walk, but didn’t
find any Bald Eagles today.
Here is a link to the complete checklist:
http://ebird.org/ebird/atlasva/view/checklist/S35991811 ;
<http://ebird.org/ebird/atlasva/view/checklist/S35991811>
Also have a look at the Richmond Audubon Facebook page for more photos from
today’s walk.
—
Lewis Barnett
blbarnett3@xxxxxxxxx
