VA Birders,
I had hoped to find a report from the VSO weekend trip to the CBBT on
Sunday morning, but finding none, I am posting my report for Monday morning. I
was told by the man at the toll booth at Cape Charles that the winds were
really strong there on Sunday, and that they were much calmer Monday morning.
In
fact, the wind on the islands wasn't bad at all when I was out there, but large
numbers of gulls were still hunkered down on the islands. I tried to check
carefully for Lesser Black-backed or other rare gulls, but I didn't find any.
A few Laughing Gulls were still there, and I saw a number of Bonaparte's Gulls
fly by, but otherwise all the gulls I saw were the basic 3--Ring-billed,
Herring, and Great Black-backed.
My principal quest bird on this trip was the adult, or nearly adult, King
Eider, as I had seen only 1 or 2 of those before, and I had not seen any this
year. I never found this bird, and in fact, I didn't see any eiders until I
got to island # 1. Then, after lunch at the restaurant there, I checked the
birds out at the point, and just as I was about to leave, I spotted a bird
slightly to the right of the point which appeared to be an eider. The bird had
a
slightly curved pink bill, a pale but not white breast, which was much lighter
than its head or back, and a pale, buffy curved line behind its eye. This
bird fit the description of an immature male King Eider in my National
Geographic guide, and I'm 99% sure that's what I saw. I think this may have
been the
bird reported in the sightings book at Eastern Shore of VA NWR (name of
reporter not included), but I am wondering if anyone else has seen this bird.
My other sightings included an absolutely stunning adult male Harlequin
Duck, seen in great light with one of the 3 rafts of mainly scoters I saw on
Island # 3. Other ducks included Bufflehead, Long-tailed Ducks, and a few
Red-breasted Mergansers.
Most unusual, I thought, and the first time I can remember seeing them
there, were at least 2 Brown Pelicans sitting on the rocks with the gulls on
both Islands # 3 & # 4! I also saw quite a few Purple Sandpipers on the
islands,
but except for one possible immature bird (which I couldn't see very well and
which had its head tucked in), I did not see any Great Cormorants on the
islands--only a few Double-crested Cormorants. Finally, the Gannets were
everywhere; I started seeing them soon after I passed Fisherman's Island, and I
saw
them from all 4 islands.
Val Kitchens
Arlington, VA
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