I visited Craney Island in Portsmouth today. I started off at the dike
on the southwest end by the office. Although there was a lot of water
in the impoundment, there was a nice variety of shorebirds along the
muddy edges including WESTERN SANDPIPER, STILT SANDPIPER, PECTORAL
SANDPIPER, BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER and a RUDDY DUCK out on the water.
There were many peep and as I was working my way down the dike sorting
through all the birds, one of the managers pulled up and told me that I
couldn't park on the dike and that I would have to park down on the road
and walk up. I had no problem with this and after I parked and started
to head back up, the same fellow came by again and said that I couldn't
bird on the dikes at all today because there was a lot of work going
on. Needless to say, with these type of restrictions, I knew my
shorebirding would be limited. I did go back up on the dike later on
the east end far away from any workers. Here I was rewarded with
exactly 10 AMERICAN AVOCETS. Another good bird I had today was an
UPLAND SANDPIPER that was in the grassy fields on the north end along
the road. There were hundreds of terns dominated by ROYAL TERN and
CASPIAN TERN but I also had GULL-BILLED TERN and LEAST TERN. After
leaving Craney, I went to Stumpy Lake in Va. Beach to look for the
Anhingas reported there last weekend. Unfortunately, I was unable to
locate either bird. Good birding.
Adam D'Onofrio
Dinwiddie Co.
You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
