On a family vacation to Chincoteague, could not resist looking for
birds. There were not large numbers of anything present. The usual egrets,
great, snowy and cattle. Little blue herons both adult and imm. and
tricolors also adult and imm. I saw the same birds in the same places each
day.
One skimmer on a sandbar on Monday, and spotted only one every other day
until Thursday evening on the way home from Tom's Cove beach, there were
two skimming along as the sun set. I saw only one osprey but other members
of our party saw several with young in the nest on a boating trip around
the "hook".
The most interesting thing for me was spotting this rather odd looking
brown spotted wading bird walking around the rocks on the north end of
the southern- most island of the Bay Bridge Tunnel. I couldn't figure out
what it was but thought the bill and head shape looked familiar. Returning
to my car and checking my book I immediately spotted the juvenile night
heron. Can't miss that large bill and the shape of the head. I also saw one
of these on Assateague in an area where we had just spotted an adult
black crowned night heron across the road.. If anyone wants to disagree with
me about the juveniles, please do so. This is the first time I have ever
seen one!
It is extremely dry in the area. The wildlife loop pond areas are
completely dry with only a few damp spots near the road, peopled by 4 glossy
ibis in the same place each day I drove by. The famous Chincoteague
mosquitoes were well represented and I did all my birding from my car with the
windows up and the AC going full blast.
Other species seen:
yellow legs
short billed dowitchers
semipalm. plover
kildeer
oyster catchers
clapper rails
Va. rails
peeps (I didn't have the expertise to identify these little creatures
from the car)
least tern
Forster's tern
Caspian tern
Gulls (I don't do gulls)
Peggy Lyons
Concord, VA
