A few Augusta Bird Club members spent this past weekend birding at the Eastern
Shore, an annual trip organized by Allen Larner. We had an awesome weekend with
great weather totaling 118 species! The weather on Fri was beautiful in the
60s. We (Allen, Darryl Schwalm and I) left Staunton at 5:30am Friday and
arrived at Island #1 of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel where we birded until
it was time to meet up with others (Brenda Tekin, Pam Howie plus 4 others) at
10am. Brenda Tekin arranged for a police escort to Islands #2, 3 and 4. We
spent 2 hours birding the islands plus the scenic overlook on the north end
with highlights including: 5 Surf Scoter, 2 White-winged Scoter, 64 Black
Scoter, 1 Long-tailed Duck, 1 Red-throated Loon, 21 Common Loon, 52 Northern
Gannet, 12 Oystercatcher, 6 Ruddy Turnstone, 38 Sanderling, 31 Purple
Sandpiper, 8 Horned Lark, 1 Coopers hawk and 1 Peregrine Falcon. For much of
the remaining weekend Allen, Darryl and I birded separately from Brenda and
Pam, hoping for a magical rare-bird phone call from the other! My report will
highlight on what Allen, Darryl and I found.
We stopped at Eastern Shore NWR for lunch and discovered that Brenda had a dead
battery (replaced with new one later in day). Here we had 17 Snow Goose, 2 Bald
Eagle, 1 SS Hawk, 2 RT Hawk and 2 Palm Warbler. Along Magotha Rd we found our
first target bird (2 Eurasian Collared-Doves) plus a Merlin, 3 Bald Eagle, 3
Eastern Phoebe and a Fox Sparrow. We continued on to Cape Charles where we
found our second target bird (a pair of Common Gallinules) plus 4 Pied-billed
Grebe, 2 Bald Eagle, 3 American Coot and 1 Kestrel. We then visited the
Cheriton Landfill and were greeted by at least 150 Black Vultures, 220 Canada
Geese, 155 Herring Gulls as well as 28 Gadwall, 21 American Wigeon, 6 Black
Duck, 26 Hooded Merganser, 38 American Coot, 3 Bald Eagle and a flock of 21
Wild Turkey along Rt 13 near the landfill. A stop at Willis Warf yielded 12
Bufflehead, 10 Semipalmated Plover, 170 Willet, 250 Marbled Godwit, 50 Dunlin
and 1 Short-billed Dowitcher. We made it to Chincoteague NWR as the sun was
setting and were able to call in 2 Clapper Rail from the reeds at the entrance.
We all met at the Village Restaurant for a hardy seafood dinner and a perfect
ending to our first day!
On Saturday we birded all morning in Chincoteague NWR around the Visitor’s
Center, Tom’s Cove and Swan Cove, scanning for two more target birds
(Bar-tailed Godwit and Eurasian Wigeon). We found the Eurasian Wigeon (a male)
but no luck with the Bar-tailed Godwit. Overhead we watched dozens of large
Snow Geese skeins flying by totaling 845 birds. Other highlights here included
14 Tundra Swan, 9 Gadwall, 40 Northern Pintail, 94 American Wigeon, 88 Black
Duck, 30 Mallard, 40 Bufflehead, 5 Hooded Merganser, 1 Red-breasted Merganser,
10 Ruddy Duck, 3 Horned Grebe, 6 Little Blue Heron, 5 White Ibis, 1 Northern
Harrier, 9 Black-bellied Plover, 8 Semipalmated Plover, 48 Greater Yellowlegs,
1 Willet, 12 Marbled Godwit, 8 Sanderling, 72 Dunlin, 50 Forster’s Tern and 1
Common Loon.
We found 16 Brant off the southeast side of the island. We then walked through
the forested Chincoteague Island Nature Trail and found lots of birds including
14 Brown-headed Nuthatch, 3 Brown Creeper, 2 Winter Wren (one singing), both
kinglets, 62 Swamp Sparrow and 42 White-throated Sparrow. Then we drove down
toward Saxis and found a Long-tailed Duck, 8 Bufflehead, 2 Northern Harrier, 1
Bald Eagle, 1 Red-tailed Hawk and 4 Swamp Sparrow.
We made it back to the Chincoteague Wildlife Loop at 3pm and birded until
sunset (a gorgeous orange sunset!) with following highlights: 130 Snow Goose
(overhead), 38 Tundra Swan, 168 Black Duck, 114 Northern Shoveler, 285
Green-winged Teal, 7 Little Blue Heron, 9 White Ibis, 2 Bald Eagle, 1
Great-horned Owl, 1 Fox Sparrow and 2 Savannah Sparrow. The wild ponies were up
close by the road at sunset! Just after sunset, we pulled into the Woodland
Trail parking lot and played some Screech Owl whinnies whereupon we got
immediate responses from a Great-horned Owl and two nearby Screech Owls! One of
the screech owls flew in and landed 15 feet above our heads and gave us a good
stare-down! Back at the entrance we called in another Clapper Rail. We all met
at Maria’s for another great dinner with a quirky little waitress!
Sunday was a whole different story with 24-32 degrees and high north winds
(25-35mph), but it was sunny! We did an early drive out to Toms Cove, which was
fairly empty but had a few highlights: 60 Snow Geese (flyovers), a Northern
Harrier (fun to watch hunt in the high winds), 3 Black-bellied Plover, 3
Semipalmated Plover and 5 Least Sandpiper. Another rare “bird” sighting,
witnessed by few people, was Allen Larner wearing a coat (I have photo
documentation)!
We proceeded south to Kiptopeke State Park in an unsuccessful search for
another target bird: a Western Kingbird. Highlights here: 2 Bald Eagle, 1
Northern Harrier, 2 Red-tailed Hawk, 20 Horned Lark and 3 Vesper Sparrow. After
a short stint at the hawk watch, we drove through the Eastern Shore NWR and
then stopped at Island #1 for lunch. The wind and sea-spray was quite wicked,
and all birds were on the leeward side of the island sitting on the water near
the rocks. We got a super close look at a beautiful male White-winged Scoter.
Overall, it was a fantastic birding trip! Thank you Allen for organizing the
trip and thank you Brenda for getting us on those islands! We totaled 118
species (112 by us and 6 other species that Brenda and Pam found: Meadowlark,
Tree Swallow, Bonaparte's Gulls, Hermit Thrush, Sapsucker and a Black Tern)! A
complete list is below, and some photos can be viewed here if interested:
http://vehawk.smugmug.com/BirdingPhotos/Eastern-Shore-VA-1122-242013
Good birding!
Vic Laubach
Waynesboro, VA
# Species Name
1052 Snow Goose
16 Brant
291 Canada Goose
61 Tundra Swan
2 Wood Duck
50 Gadwall
1 Eurasian Wigeon
132 American Wigeon
410 American Black Duck
71 Mallard
164 Northern Shoveler
58 Northern Pintail
292 Green-winged Teal
2 Ring-necked Duck
1 Lesser Scaup
5 Surf Scoter
2 White-winged Scoter
64 Black Scoter
2 Long-tailed Duck
157 Bufflehead
36 Hooded Merganser
1 Red-breasted Merganser
14 Ruddy Duck
21 Wild Turkey
1 Red-throated Loon
23 Common Loon
8 Pied-billed Grebe
3 Horned Grebe
52 Northern Gannet
149 Double-crested Cormorant
56 Brown Pelican
14 Great Blue Heron
30 Great Egret
13 Little Blue Heron
14 White Ibis
194 Black Vulture
51 Turkey Vulture
7 Northern Harrier
3 Sharp-shinned Hawk
1 Cooper's Hawk
15 Bald Eagle
6 Red-tailed Hawk
2 Clapper Rail
2 Common Gallinule
41 American Coot
12 American Oystercatcher
12 Black-bellied Plover
21 Semipalmated Plover
1 Killdeer
61 Greater Yellowlegs
171 Willet
35 Lesser Yellowlegs
263 Marbled Godwit
6 Ruddy Turnstone
46 Sanderling
122 Dunlin
31 Purple Sandpiper
9 Least Sandpiper
1 Short-billed Dowitcher
2 Laughing Gull
293 Ring-billed Gull
186 Herring Gull
227 Great Black-backed Gull
56 Forster's Tern
76 Rock Pigeon
2 Eurasian Collared-Dove
17 Mourning Dove
2 Eastern Screech-Owl
2 Great Horned Owl
8 Belted Kingfisher
2 Red-bellied Woodpecker
2 Downy Woodpecker
4 Northern Flicker
1 American Kestrel
1 Merlin
1 Peregrine Falcon
3 Eastern Phoebe
2 Blue Jay
9 American Crow
4 Fish Crow
28 Horned Lark
4 Carolina Chickadee
16 Brown-headed Nuthatch
3 Brown Creeper
2 Winter Wren
2 Carolina Wren
5 Golden-crowned Kinglet
3 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
42 Eastern Bluebird
22 American Robin
3 Northern Mockingbird
210 European Starling
5 Cedar Waxwing
2 Palm Warbler
80 Yellow-rumped Warbler
4 Eastern Towhee
3 Chipping Sparrow
3 Vesper Sparrow
4 Savannah Sparrow
2 Fox Sparrow
9 Song Sparrow
69 Swamp Sparrow
73 White-throated Sparrow
3 Dark-eyed Junco
5 Northern Cardinal
135 Red-winged Blackbird
6 Common Grackle
28 Boat-tailed Grackle
111 Brown-headed Cowbird
2 House Finch
2 American Goldfinch
12 House Sparrow
3 Bonapart’s Gull
2 Eastern Meadowlark
1 Tree Swallow
1 Hermit Thrush
1 Black Tern
