David Hughes led Dave Hogg, Mike Iwanik, Adam D'Onofrio, Tina Trice, Peggy
Rommen-Waterfield, and myself around Craney Island today (Sunday, August 31)
from 08:45 a.m. to 01:00 p.m. Moderate rain challenged our day's start, but we
persevered through this brief inconvenience and were rewarded with 4+ hours of
excellent birding that featured significant diversity and numbers. Once the
rain relented, mostly cloudy skies and relatively cool late August temperatures
yielded excellent scope image quality and birding conditions.
Our day's highlights included a HUDSONIAN GODWIT, a RED-NECKED PHALAROPE, 8
WILSON'S PHALAROPES (a lone bird, and a group of 7), numerous shorebirds, and a
striking leucistic SANDERLING.
SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER was the most abundant peep (not surprisingly), followed
by LEAST (common), WESTERN (6+), STILT (6+), PECTORAL (2), and SPOTTED
SANDPIPERS (1). Our only disappointment was not finding a White-rumped
Sandpiper.
GREATER YELLOWLEGS were common but were out-numbered by the noticeably more
abundant LESSER YELLOWLEGS. SANDERLINGS (including the leucistic bird noted
above) and WILLET were plentiful; BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER, RUDDY TURNSTONE, and
OSPREY were fairly comomon. We found only SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS, though they
were numerous.
Craney Island's tern population included 15+ BLACK TERNS in addition to LEAST,
COMMON, FORSTER'S, CASPIAN, and ROYAL TERNS. A BLACK TERN challenging a LEAST
TERN offered an unusual photo opportunity. BLUE-WINGED TEAL (4) and a group of
NORTHERN SHOVELER (10) represented the ducks. We also enjoyed BLACK SKIMMER
(3), good numbers of AMERICAN AVOCET (20+), and numerous SEMIPALMATED PLOVER.
It was a most enjoyable day in the field in the company of fine people and
birds!
Mark Adams
Charlottesville
