Hello, Virginia Birders,
This morning, Sunday, Sept. 11, Mike Iwanik, Vickie Gullett, John Fox and I
found an EARED GREBE in the SW corner of the middle impoundment at Craney
Island. It was diving repeatedly in fairly deep and choppy, wind-driven water.
The grebe is molting and pretty scruffy-looking, but the thin, upturned spike
of a bill and the round head with the bump on top gave it away. The fact that
it's way too early for HORNED GREBE also caught our attention.
Other birds of interest at Craney included a single AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER, a
minimum of 22 AMERICAN AVOCET, 4 WILSON'S PHALAROPE and a WHITE-RUMPED
SANDPIPER. Hundreds, if not thousands of other shorebirds are scattered across
the flats. Many are viewable through a scope, others are just too far out to do
more than just say "PEEP". The majority of those identifiable are SEMIPALMATED
PLOVER, LESSER YELLOWLEGS, SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER and LEAST SANDPIPER.
Good birding,
David L. Hughes
Portsmouth, VA Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download :
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