Hello all,
Andrew's request from the other day prompted me to join the list and share my
sightings, although I live in MD, I regularly check VA-birds for sightings.
I was birding down in Chincoteague NWR and the immediate vicinity from last
Friday through Monday the 9 - 12. It was generally good birding and there were
indeed good numbers of shorebirds for this early in the season, although water
levels were quite low. We had 85 species total. We were on a family vacation so
didn't bird 24/7 but did get to do a lot. Highlights were of course the nesting
Piping Plovers, Least Terns, Black Skimmers, and Am. Oystercatchers. We also
had Black-necked Stilts, Common, Royal and Forster's Terns, and good numbers of
Brown Pelicans, Glossy Ibis, Tricolored, Little Blue, Great Blue, Green, and
Black-crowned Night Herons, and Great and a few Cattle Egrets. Shorebirds
included Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Short-billed Dowitcher (300 - 400),
Least Sandpiper, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Dunlin, Spotted Sandpiper, and ~ 150
Eastern Willets. Somewhere around 1000 shorebirds total, but please consider
this a rough estimate. We also had Yellow-breasted Chat, Yellow-billed Cuckoo,
Blue Grosbeak, Pine Warbler, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Boat-tailed Grackle,
Eastern Meadowlark, and N. Rough-winged Swallow. We had over 2 dozen Clapper
Rails at 2 spots, including at least 6 individuals seen well at the Assateague
Channel bridge including a few juveniles. The most unexpected sightings were
very early migrants: a "Western" Willet, seen on the 12th with the flock of
Easterns on the bay side at Tom's Cove at the NWR and a juvenile Common Loon,
seen on the 11th and the 12th on the south side of the road just before the
Tom's Cove visitor's center.
We also saw 6 or 7 Delmarva Fox Squirrels.
Good Birding,
Frank Marenghi
Annapolis, MD
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