Greetings to all, Trying to get this out before power goes off here in
Williamsburg. So far just rain and wind.
Barbara Houston, Lynda Blair and I traveled to Eastern Shore Thursday, Aug 25.
At island 1 of CBBT we observed half dozen Navy ships and a sub moving through
the channel heading out to sea for safety. Very smoky from Dismal Swamp Fire.
Stopped first at Kiptopeke State Park in time to see the next to the final net
run. Songbird station was staffed by head bander Calvin Brennan with intern Jim
Roberts and volunteer Joe Beatty. Observed banding of Ovenbird, two Eastern
Kingbirds, Traill's Flycatcher, and unusual Mourning Dove (not often netted).
Then we headed to Chincoteague. VERY DRY around wildlife loop. Even the ditches
are dry, some with only a mud puddle. Very few wading birds along the loop
drive. Shore birds (peeps) spread across the mud flats and feeding in the
cracks in the mud. The area can use the rain that Hurricane Irene will bring.
We've never seen the interior of Wildlife Loop Drive so dry.
Quite a few birds concentrated in the shallow water across from Tom's Cove
Visitor Center.
The list below from eBird shows birds observed primarily at this area where we
spent considerable time with cameras with big lenses (Lynda and Barbara) and a
spotting scope with digiscoping setup (me). Shore birds were fairly close near
the road and we were able to get a good shore bird lesson at close range.
One of the best birds was lone Piping Plover. Also a lone Sandwich Tern. Black
Skimmers made several passes very close to our spot. One of the saddest sights
was an immature Royal Tern with red plastic wrapped around its neck and beak
making it unable to forage. Not sure how much longer that bird will live.
We had planned to stay overnight but the weather forecast persuaded us to head
for home Thursday night. Glad we didn't stay.
Here is a link to photos taken by Lynda Blair.
http://lyndablair.smugmug.com/Other/Chincoteague-August-2011/18725293_d9pfL9#1448669245_6cmK6q3
Shirley Devan
Williamsburg, VA
Ph: 757.813.1322
I'm now on facebook ...
Begin forwarded message:
From: do-not-reply@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: eBird Report - Chincoteague NWR--Beach Rd., Aug 25, 2011
Date: August 27, 2011 9:55:12 AM EDT
To: sedevan52@xxxxxxx
Chincoteague NWR--Beach Rd., Accomack, US-VA
Aug 25, 2011 3:15 PM - 6:15 PM
Protocol: Traveling
2.0 mile(s)
Comments: primary observations from Tom's Cove area across from Visitor
Center. Other observations in driving around Wildlife Loop
36 species (+1 other taxa)
Mallard 3
Double-crested Cormorant 3
Great Blue Heron 2
Great Egret 4
Snowy Egret 4
Little Blue Heron 1
Cattle Egret 24 with ponies
Green Heron 1 on Wildlife Drive
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron 1 immature in ditch
Osprey 1
Bald Eagle 1
Black-bellied Plover 6
Semipalmated Plover 100 estimate
Piping Plover 1
Killdeer 4
Spotted Sandpiper 3
Greater Yellowlegs 6
Willet 4
Lesser Yellowlegs 6
Marbled Godwit 1
Ruddy Turnstone 3
Sanderling 24
Semipalmated Sandpiper 100 estimate at Tom's Cove area
Least Sandpiper 50 estimate at Tom's Cove
Short-billed/Long-billed Dowitcher 6
Laughing Gull 24
Ring-billed Gull 6
Herring Gull 6
Least Tern 4
Caspian Tern 2
Common Tern 12
Forster's Tern 12
Royal Tern 12
Sandwich Tern 1
Black Skimmer 36
Mourning Dove 1
Belted Kingfisher 2
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2 (http://ebird.org/VA)
