Hey Folks,
After work this afternoon I did some quick birding at North Lake Holly,
Rudee Inlet, and Owl's Creek near the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. Many of
our lakes started to freeze up since the temperature plummeted on
Wednesday, and got down into the teens on Thursday. I'd hoped to come
across some northern birds that might have moved south into our area thanks
to the cold. However, at North Lake Holly I was pleased to see that there
was 1 adult Black-crowned Night-Heron present directly across from the
Sandpiper Motel at 12th Street (FOY bird).
At Rudee Inlet I met up with Karen Beatty, and we observed the two Common
Eiders still out in the inlet. With the cold weather we've had over the
last couple days, the middle portion of the jetty is all iced up from the
high tide wave action, but it hasn't affected the gulls. There was still
plenty of Herring & Great Black-backed Gull visible today on the rocks. It
was pretty quiet otherwise, just some Sanderlings, a few Brown Pelicans, 1
Black Scoter, and a small group of Buffleheads. The Boat-tailed Grackles
are quite numerous here along with the Ring-billed Gulls in the parking
area.
We made another stop over at Owl's Creek Boat Ramp just north of the
Virginia Aquarium for a half hour or so. Here we saw a single Bald Eagle
perched on a tall tree across the creek and a Cooper's Hawk flew across
while we walked through the marsh. Mallards were numerous. A group of 8
Red-breasted Mergansers flew in from the ocean and landed out on the creek,
and we also got looks at a smaller duck that I believe was a Lesser Scaup,
though it had its tail cocked up like a Ruddy Duck, it surely had the
coloration and facial marks of a female scaup. My grainy photographs
unfortunately won't be able to positively ID it, but it was nice to see
some variety today. Photos from the outing are available in my eBird
reports as well as on my website (
http://www.rbnature.com/galleries/we-20150111) for those interested.
Looking like another cold day tomorrow, so perhaps something neat will move
its way south into the region tomorrow. Hope everyone has a great weekend
of birding!
Rob Bielawski
Virginia Beach, VA
