Yesterday Calvin Brennan and I walked the length of Washington Ditch to the
lake and back. It was a great morning for the walk. The early temperature
at 6:15am was 57F and when we left at noon the temperature had risen to 82F.
Because the Tidewater area was in the center of a high pressure system,
there was a little early morning fog, some ozone, and no wind. The windless
conditions provided great listening conditions for the entire morning. Bird
highlights included nine species of warbler including 5 Swainson's Warblers,
a couple of which were fussing and flying back and forth across the road
probably feeding fledged young. A large number of Barred Owls were heard
and a single young bird was seen and heard begging. A Northern Bobwhite
called near the parking lot and two Wild Turkeys were seen. A female Wood
Duck was swimming in the ditch with four young. Prothonotary Warblers ran
off with the high count, but a large number of Acadian Flycatchers earned
that species second place, one more than Common Yellowthroat.
On the butterfly front Pearl Crescents were most numerous with 59 counted on
our way back from the lake. The only skipper seen was a single
Silver-spotted. Some of the Eastern Commas seen were really spiffy. The
complete list: Palamedes Swallotail 2, E. Tiger Swalltail 3, Black
Swallowtail 1, Zebra Swallowtail 7, Common Buckeye 4, American Lady 1,
Question Mark 4, Eastern Comma 8, Silver-spotted Skipper 1.
The complete bird list is appended to end of this email.
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/
Location: Dismal Swamp NWR Washington Ditch
Observation date: 6/7/11
Number of species: 43
Wood Duck 3
Northern Bobwhite 1
Wild Turkey 1
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 3
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Mourning Dove 3
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 6
Barred Owl 8
Chimney Swift 2
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 3
Red-headed Woodpecker 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 9
Downy Woodpecker 2
Hairy Woodpecker 3
Northern Flicker 2
Pileated Woodpecker 8
Eastern Wood-Pewee 8
Acadian Flycatcher 20
Great Crested Flycatcher 5
White-eyed Vireo 2
Red-eyed Vireo 2
Blue Jay 1
Carolina Chickadee 11
Tufted Titmouse 3
White-breasted Nuthatch 3
Carolina Wren 19
Wood Thrush 4
Prairie Warbler 2
Black-and-white Warbler 2
American Redstart 12
Prothonotary Warbler 49
Swainson's Warbler 5
Ovenbird 7
Louisiana Waterthrush 3
Common Yellowthroat 14
Hooded Warbler 5
Summer Tanager 3
Northern Cardinal 3
Indigo Bunting 5
Common Grackle (Purple) 7
Brown-headed Cowbird 3
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)
