Highlights: 47 Black terns, 380 chimney swifts, 85 bobolinks. 1 little blue
heron, teals
I spent most of the day driving back and forth between the Potomac (Muse Rd
(route 624) and Ebb Tide Beach) and the Rappahannock (Leedstown) to see what
Hanna might have blown in. The Potomac had lots of laughing gulls and about 25
royal terns, mostly at Ebb Tide Beach. Viewing from Muse Rd I saw a dark bird
chasing a royal tern. Thinking it might be a jaeger, I got very excited for a
few seconds, but it was an immature laughing gull. Most of the 450-500 laughing
gulls I saw were immatures. Also saw 3 herring gulls, 3 chimney swifts, several
ospreys and eagles, about 25 ring-billed gulls, about 30 cormorant, and
surprisingly no forsters terns.
On the Rappahannock there were 42 Forster's terns visible in Leedstown. The
best bird of the day was 47 black terns hovering over Drake's marsh (Leedstown)
and then streaming up the Rappahannock River just before an absolutely gorgeous
sunset. I have never seen so many black terns. They were all in one flock.
Leedstown also had 85 bobolinks, a juvenile little blue heron (probably the
same one that has been here for two weeks), 4 great egrets, a great horned
owl, a grasshopper sparrow, 50 cormorants, 10 fish crows, a flock of 1300
redwinged blackbirds in the marsh, several hundred swallows (mostly tree but
also barn, bank, and rough-winged) flying upriver over the marsh at sunset, a
purple martin, 2 blue-winged teal (first of season for me), 1 green-winged teal
(first of season for me), 11 wood ducks, 7 mallards, 18 or so bobwhites
(including a dozen or so cute little flying babies, half the size of the
adults), 35 indigo buntings, 12 blue
grosbeaks, 14 common yellowthroats, 99 Canada geese, 3 horned larks, and a
yellow-breasted chat. When the rain stopped, many chipping sparrows, field
sparrows, mockingbirds, and cowbirds started bathing in the puddles of the farm
road. I guess the very long shower they had wasn't enough? 8>D
A Savannah Sparrow (first of the season for me) and several forster's terns
were at the King George ponds on the way down in the morning.
The only shorebirds I could find were several killdeer, but the pond where I
had seen shorebirds in previous weeks was full of water (no shoreline) and the
farm crops had grown significantly, making it difficult to see anything at
Parker Farm except the 99 geese.
As I returned just after sunset I found a chimney swift roost that I didn't
know existed at the old school along route 3 near the stop light in Oak Grove.
A large vortex of them swirled around the chimney and I estimated 380 (counting
by 5s) as they spilled into the chimney over a [period of just a few minutes at
around 7:55. I might have missed some that entered the chimney before I
arrived.
Hope you all got to enjoy that remarkable sunset.
All the best
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
http://tea.armadaproject.org/tea_atwoodfrontpage.html
