The regular Sunday morning (8am) Field Trip to Dyke Marsh, sponsored by the
Friends of Dyke Marsh for the last 18 yrs or so and open to all participants
met today at the picnic area under an overcast sky. The trip was led by
Larry Meade and myself. 18 participants showed up for a nice, but wet walk.
Well, at least my feet were soaking wet by the time we made it to the
marina. Our highlight was "rescue the Prothonotary Warbler" at the marina.
Initially we found a single Prothonotary Warbler at the trailers right at
the beginning of the marina. The bird kept flying from boat trailer to boat
trailer and at one point in time disappeared in to an open hole in one of
the front boat supports on a trailer. Nesting?? was the big question. We
never were able to confirm this. We studied the bird for a while and noticed
that the bird remained in the area, despite that 18 of us were watching it
from close distance. One of the participants suddenly noticed a second
Prothonotary Warbler trying to get out of an old boat!!! This bird kept
flying into the windows. Obviously the bird had not figured out what glass
was. Fortunately the door to cabin was unlocked was and one of us opened
all the windows so the bird could escape. It was very nice to see these
warblers at close distance. Deciding to give the warblers a little break we
moved on. We saw plenty of Orioles, both Orchard and Baltimore, got some
good looks of a Warbling Vireo and listened to a Chestnut-sided Warbler. We
briefly spotted a late Ruby-crowned Kinglet. A pair of Eastern Kingbird was
bringing nesting materials to a tree along the river and the first ducklings
were seen. Both Solitary and Spotted Sandpipers were seen. A pair of
Spotted Sandpipers was foraging in the wet area next to the parking lot. A
single male Lesser Scaup was briefly seen at the Potomac river. A pair of
Woodducks was reported just upstream of the picnic area but we did not see
them. We ended up seeing close to 60 species.
Larry or I will post some pictures from the Prothonotary Warblers later.
Gerco
Vienna, VA
Number of species: 58
Canada Goose 15
Mallard 30 (with young)
Lesser Scaup 1
Red-breasted Merganser 3
Double-crested Cormorant 13
Great Blue Heron 9
Osprey 10 (4 on 2 nests)
Cooper's Hawk 2
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Killdeer 1
Spotted Sandpiper 4
Solitary Sandpiper 3
Laughing Gull 5
Ring-billed Gull 2
Rock Pigeon 7
Mourning Dove 12
Chimney Swift 32
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 3
Downy Woodpecker 2
Great Crested Flycatcher 2
Eastern Kingbird 2 (with nesting materials)
Warbling Vireo 2
Red-eyed Vireo 7
Blue Jay 4
American Crow 4
Fish Crow 1
Purple Martin 2
Tree Swallow 10
Barn Swallow 10
Carolina Chickadee 2 (with some food in bill)
Tufted Titmouse 8
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Carolina Wren 12
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 15
American Robin 6
Gray Catbird 8
Northern Mockingbird 3
European Starling 15
Cedar Waxwing 5
Northern Parula 4
Yellow Warbler 7
Chestnut-sided Warbler 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler 3
Prothonotary Warbler 2 (nesting or just curious??? by disappearing in first
trailer on the right in the marina).
Common Yellowthroat 3
Song Sparrow 3
White-throated Sparrow 9
Northern Cardinal 14
Red-winged Blackbird 23
Common Grackle 16
Brown-headed Cowbird 12
Orchard Oriole 6
Baltimore Oriole 10
House Finch 4
American Goldfinch 10
House Sparrow 8
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/VA)
