Fellow Birders,
*Highlights*
PAWMAWT - 7:25 to 8:30 AM - 2 Eastern Meadowlarks, 1 Hairy Woodpecker
(County FOY), general lack of shorebirds with just 1 Spotted Sandpiper
seen.
Milldam Creek - 8:50 to 9:20 AM - Northern Bobwhite heard calling several
times to the north of the first creek crossing. No visual possible in this
environment but worth noting the calls. A few photographs from the outing
viewable at link below, remainder of shots will be up in the next couple of
days.
*Photographs*
*http://www.rbnature.com/galleries/we-20150816/
<http://www.rbnature.com/galleries/we-20150816/>*
*Additional Notes*
Last year on this date, Bob Ake spotted a Ruff at the Whitehurst Tract of
Princess Anne WMA. Two days later, on the 17th (a Sunday), was the first
time I ever visited the park, in the hopes of finding this same bird. I
ended up meeting up with David Gibson of Chesapeake, and together we
attempted to find the vagrant! However, inexperienced with shorebirds at
the time, I'm not sure if I would have been able to ID the bird even if I'd
seen it. Since then, I have been to the park a good dozen or more times,
and have become much more comfortable with identifying the shorebirds that
pass through coastal Virginia. This week, while browsing back through my
photographs from that outing last year, I was able to pick out a Stilt
Sandpiper (likely the same one noted on eBird that day by Rexanne Bruno &
Tracy Tate), and it was confirmed as such via the Hampton Roads Wildlife
Enthusiasts Group on Facebook. With the excitement of adding a Life bird,
though a historic one, combined with the date of the Ruff sighting last
year arriving, I decided to head out early in the morning to the WMA in
search of shorebirds.
Of course, I've also birded this area pretty heavily over the last 6 weeks,
hoping for some shorebirds to stop on the impoundments as their southward
journey progresses. What I failed to recognize on my prior outings was the
lack of suitable habitat. Thanks to looking through the photographs from
last year's outing I realized that the entire northern cell of the southern
impoundments was covered in very short grass, a great environment for the
shorebirds to land and feed on. This year, all but a very narrow stretch in
the center of this cell isn't overgrown with 2-3 feet of grasses. I do not
know the reason for this change in habitat, perhaps different policies on
the upkeep of the park? But, what I do know is that it has surely resulted
in less shorebirds. Today, I saw only 1 Spotted Sandpiper in the park. I
take this as a good lesson though, that habitat does change from year to
year, and birders must also adjust their strategies to match this change.
While frustrated a bit after turning up just the 1 shorebird, I kept on
walking around the preserve, and was greatly rewarded for the efforts of
walking through high grasses, and getting soaked by the morning dew. In the
same area I'd heard & seen the Northern Bobwhites recently, I had a Hairy
Woodpecker fly in and land very close to a Downy Woodpecker. Now, Hairy
Woodpeckers seem like a common species, but there are not too many
verifiable observations of them each year here in Virginia Beach. This was
the the first I've seen this year that was completely distinguishable from
the much more common Downy Woodpeckers, and it was pretty neat to see them
in the same view through the binoculars. That was species #185 in Virginia
Beach, so another step closer to hitting my initial yearly goal of 200!
After leaving the park, I drove down into southwestern Virginia Beach,
across the Pungo Ferry Road bridge over the North Landing River, and down
Blackwater Road to the Milldam Creek Boardwalk. Here, I mostly photographed
insects amphibians, but I was excited to see a Prothonotary Warbler over
the creek, and also hear a Northern Bobwhite call out several times to the
north of the first creek crossing. I drove around some of the roads along
Blackwater & Indian Creek Roads, just to check out the habitat, noting that
all of the fields are still fully grown with corn & soy beans. Hopefully in
the next couple months, the grains are harvested, and the fields become a
location that birds can be found in from the roadways, as I have a few
species in mind for this area.
*Full Details & Photos (Posted each Monday for the previous Mon-Sun
Timeframe)*
*http://www.rbnature.com/blog-index/ ;<http://www.rbnature.com/blog-index/>*
Rob Bielawski
Virginia Beach
