Temperature this morning was 37F as Alex and Mike Minarik, Joyce Neff, Bob
Anderson, John Fox and I started our way along Railroad Ditch at 7:30am. The
wind didn't seem too bad, at that point, but when we turned the corner at West
Ditch and headed south, we could feel the cold blast from the north. The
cooler weather seemed to slow the bird song as our numbers today were a little
low. FOY birds included Black-and-white Warbler and Ovenbird. Blue-gray
Gnatcatchers were my first for the swamp this year. We had a nice show from a
young tom turkey displaying before two admiring hens with a third hen some
distance away. Frogs heard starting after 10am included Southern Leopard Frog,
Southern Cricket Frog, and Brimley's Chorus Frog. Along the walk back toward
our cars we began to encounter butterflies including Zebra Swallowtail (10),
Pearl Crescent (4), Mourning Cloak (1), Spring Azure (1), Red-banded Hairstreak
(1), Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (1), Variegated Fritillary (2), Black
Swallowtail (1), and Horace's Duskywing (1).
The next walk will leave from the Washington Ditch parking lot at 7:00am.
No reservation is necessary; just show up. Hope to see you there. The
complete birdlist from this morning's walk follows.
Dismal Swamp NWR Washington Ditch, Suffolk, US-VA
Mar 27, 2012 7:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Protocol: Traveling
6.0 mile(s)
40 species
Wood Duck 1
Hooded Merganser 1
Wild Turkey 4
Great Blue Heron 2
Black Vulture 3
Turkey Vulture 6
Osprey 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 3
Mourning Dove 1
Barred Owl 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 4
Downy Woodpecker 1
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 1
Pileated Woodpecker 3
Eastern Phoebe 1
Blue-headed Vireo 1
Blue Jay 1
Tree Swallow 5
Carolina Chickadee 6
Tufted Titmouse 3
Carolina Wren 5
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 4
Eastern Bluebird 1
American Robin 1
Ovenbird 4
Louisiana Waterthrush 1
Black-and-white Warbler 1
Orange-crowned Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 9
Pine Warbler 5
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 9
Eastern Towhee 3
White-throated Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 2
Red-winged Blackbird 65
Common Grackle 3
Brown-headed Cowbird 2
American Goldfinch 4
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)
Robert L. Ake
6603 Catherine Street
Norfolk VA 23505
I did an ABA Big Year in 2010 - If you'd like to review it, my blog is at
http://bobsbirds.blogspot.com/
