We did a quick run through Chincoteague on the way to the Kiptopeke
Challenge September 12, 2008. We went to Tom's Cove and did the Wildlife
Drive. We had very good numbers of shorebirds. The numbers only show those
we could see and identify. Many more were seen but with the lighting
conditions and distance the birds could not all be identified.
Some of the highlights are 10 American Golden Plover, 1 Red Knot, 1
White-rumped Sandpiper, 1 Wilson's Phalarope and 1 Black -necked Stilt on
the refuge. Also seen were 2 Gull-billed Terns and 100 Sandwich Terns.
Here is the entire list with numbers of those that we counted:
Brown Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Canada Goose
American Black Duck
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Lesser Scaup 1
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Merlin
Black-bellied Plover 15
American Golden Plover 10
Semipalmated Plover > 1000
Killdeer 7
American Oystercatcher 2 (on the causeway)
Greater Yellowlegs 5
Solitary Sandpiper 1
Willet 20
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Ruddy Turnstone 4
Red Knot 1
Sanderling 12
Semipalmated Sandpiper 25
Least Sandpiper 50
White-rumped Sandpiper 1
Pectoral Sandpiper 6
Dunlin 3
Short-billed Dowitcher 50
Wilson's Phalarope 1
Black-necked Stilt 1
Laughing Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Gull-billed Tern 2
Caspian Tern 6
Royal Tern 8
Sandwich Tern 100
Common Tern 4
Black Skimmer
Mourning Dove
Carolina Wren
American Robin
European Starling
Red-winged Blackbird
Boat-tailed Grackle
Glenn Koppel and Mary Alice Koeneke
gjkoppel@xxxxxxx
Centreville, VA 20120-2901
