Saturday was full of good birding - first a bird walk at New Quarter Park
in York County with the Williamsburg Bird Club, and then a terrific visit
(my first) to the Greensprings Trail in Williamsburg with Meredith and Lee
Bell (what a place!; Meredith posted the list to VA-Bird).
Our success on Saturday prompted me to make a first spring visit to
Beaverdam Park in Gloucester Sunday morning.
I spent 1.5 to 2 hours at each of the South (Main) and North sections of
the park (http://www.gloucesterva.info/pr/parks/welbvd.htm). Total species
count for the morning was 60.
At the South section from 0720 to 0910, I found 53 species. Highlights were
the still-enormous group of COOTS, a flyover adult BALD EAGLE, 2 HORNED
GREBES, a COMMON LOON (the Horned Grebes and Loon are new for me for this
reservoir in 3 years of birding the location), singing HERMIT THRUSHES, a
singing YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER, and 6 woodpecker species.
At the North section from 0930 to 1100, I added 7 new species for the day.
Highlights were a RED-SHOULDERED HAWK screaming and building a nest,
another singing YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER, 3 WINTER WRENS, 3 singing
RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS, a BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER, 2 singing EASTERN PHOEBES,
lots of SONG SPARROWS, WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS, and YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS,
a giant mud-covered snapping turtle searching out a new haunt, a mud
turtle, and my first Zebra Swallowtail butterfly of the year. The Mute
Swans have already laid eggs and are incubating their demon-spawn.
Complete lists for the two walks are included below.
Beaverdam Park South
Observation date: 3/25/07
Number of species: 53
Canada Goose 22
Mute Swan 7
Wood Duck 1
Mallard 3
Ring-necked Duck 11
Lesser Scaup 9
Common Loon 1
Pied-billed Grebe 7
Horned Grebe 2
Double-crested Cormorant 80
Great Blue Heron 4
Turkey Vulture 1
Osprey 3
Bald Eagle 1
American Coot 500
Killdeer 2
Laughing Gull 1
Ring-billed Gull 17
Mourning Dove 3
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 3
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1
Downy Woodpecker 3
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 2
Pileated Woodpecker 3
Blue Jay 2
American Crow 7
Tree Swallow 3
Carolina Chickadee 5
Tufted Titmouse 7
Carolina Wren 6
Golden-crowned Kinglet 5
Eastern Bluebird 1
Hermit Thrush 4
American Robin 11
Gray Catbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 1
Brown Thrasher 2
European Starling 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
Yellow-throated Warbler 1
Pine Warbler 4
Chipping Sparrow 3
Song Sparrow 5
White-throated Sparrow 4
Dark-eyed Junco 9
Northern Cardinal 8
Red-winged Blackbird 2
Common Grackle 2
Brown-headed Cowbird 3
House Finch 1
American Goldfinch 4
Beaverdam Park North
Observation date: 3/25/07
Number of species: 35
Canada Goose 19
Mute Swan 6 (1 female incubating at least 4 eggs)
Mallard 11
Black Vulture 1
Turkey Vulture 3
Osprey 1
Bald Eagle 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 1 (building nest)
American Coot 5
Laughing Gull 2
Ring-billed Gull 12
Mourning Dove 4
Belted Kingfisher 2
Downy Woodpecker 3
Northern Flicker 1
Eastern Phoebe 2
American Crow 12
Fish Crow 4
Carolina Chickadee 3
Tufted Titmouse 2
Carolina Wren 1
Winter Wren 3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 3
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Eastern Bluebird 7
Brown Thrasher 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler 17
Yellow-throated Warbler 1
Pine Warbler 1
Chipping Sparrow 6
Song Sparrow 12
White-crowned Sparrow 28
Dark-eyed Junco 8
Northern Cardinal 4
Brown-headed Cowbird 1
Dave Hewitt
Gloucester, VA
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