Jim Mathews and I covered Dyke Marsh (3 hours), Westgrove Park (30 minutes),
White Oaks Park (1 hour), and Hollin Hills (1 ¾ hours). Highlights were
MARSH WREN, SNIPE, CAPE MAY WARBLER, RED-BREASTED MERGANSER, and an
amazing-looking LEUCISTIC WHITE-THROATED SPARROW. We found the latter in
White Oaks Park, just between the small stream and the tennis courts. It
has a snow-white head, with the exception of the lores, which were yellow.
Bizarre and gorgeous. Almost made up for being us both being bitten by a
dog 5 minutes later.
Overall impression: definitely some new birds in today. FOS birds in my in
White Oaks included redstart, blackpoll, Acadian, and cuckoo. FOS birds
elsewhere included pewee and Swainsons thrush. There were fair numbers of
waxwing flocks around Dyke, many migrant parulas in Hollin Hills. Dyke also
had good numbers of both orioles, as well as the expected yellow warblers,
kingbirds, and warbling vireos (the latter exclusively well out the Haul
Road).
Complete list follows, in the order given above. 77 species total.
Ben Jesup
Alexandria
Cormorant 23/0/0/0
Canada goose 18/0/0/0
Wood duck 8/0/0/0
Mallard 14/2/0/2
RB merg 1/0/0/0 (female off the end of the boardwalk)
Great blue heron 6/0/0/0
Osprey 6/0/0/0 (including doing fly-by branch grab for nesting material)
RS hawk 0/0/2/0 (1 on nest, the other carrying nesting material to the nest)
Greater yellowlegs 1/0/0/0
Spotted sandpiper 4/0/0/0
Snipe 1/0/0/0
RB gull 4/0/0/0
Laughing gull 40/0/8/0
Pigeon 0/0/1/0
Dove 11/1/1/3
YB cuckoo 1/0/1/0
Swift 0/0/0/4
Hummer 0/0/0/1 (later in the day)
RB woodpecker 5/2/3/8
Downy 2/0/1/1
Hairy 0/0/2/1
Flicker 2/0/2/1
Pileated 0/0/1/1
Pewee 0/0/0/1
Acadian 0/0/1/1
Phoebe 0/1/0/0
Great crested 1/0/1/3
Warbling 5/0/0/0
Red-eyed vireo 0/1/5/6
Jay 8/1/2/4
Amer. Crow 0/1/0/0
Fish crow 5/0/2/2
Tree swallow 6/0/0/0
NRW swallow 1/0/0/0
Barn swallow 4/0/0/0
Chickadee 7/1/3/4
Titmouse 1/0/4/3
WB nut 0/1/2/1
Carolina wren 7/1/4/4
House wren 0/2/2/3
Marsh wren 1/0/0/0 (heard singing to the right before the bridge)
RC kinglet 1/0/0/0
Gnatcatcher 8/3/4/5
Veery 0/0/0/1
Swainsons 0/0/0/1
Wood thrush 0/0/1/3
Robin 11/10/7/7
Catbird 3/2/5/8
Mocker 2/4/0/0
Starling 9/4/7/0
Waxwing 30+/0/0/0
Parula 3/1/4/11
Yellow 3/1/1/0
Cape May 0/0/0/1 (singing, took us 10 minutes to get a good view)
BTB 1/0/2/1
Yellow-rumped 4/3/7/14
BTG 0/0/0/1
Palm 1/0/0/0 (western)
Blackpoll 0/1/0/1
Redstart 1/0/1/3
Ovenbird 0/0/5/1
Yellowthroat 4/2/4/1
Scarlet tanager 1/0/1(female)/1
Towhee 0/1/2/2
Song sparrow 5/2/1/1
Swamp 4/0/0/0
White-throated 4/2/1(leucistic)/7
Cardinal 13/2/3/16
RB grosbeak 0/0/0/1
RW blackbird 45/5/0/0
Grackle 7/2/5/11
Cowbird 3/0/2/2
Orchard oriole 9/0/0/0
Baltimore 8/4/0/0
House finch 2/4/3/0
Goldfinch 13/5/8/7
House sparrow 7/0/4/5
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG.
Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 269.23.8/1413 - Release Date: 5/3/2008
11:22 AM
