Paul Glass and I enjoyed a nice day at Hog Island WMA in Surry Co today. The
AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS seen frequently from the College Creek Hawkwatch on the
Colonial Parkway recently were there all day although they moved around a bit.
We counted as many as 22 birds today. Other highlights included a lingering
AMERICAN WIGEON, a calling LEAST BITTERN and a latish AMERICAN PIPIT, all at
the north end. Also at the north end was a single male BOBOLINK singing his
cheery song until an Eastern Kingbird took exception and sent him packing. A
decent amount of shorebirds were around with good numbers of both YELLOWLEGS
and LEAST SANDPIPER. Other shorebirds included a single BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER,
KILLDEER, SEMIPALMATED PLOVER, SPOTTED SANDPIPER, 3 DUNLIN, PECTORAL SANDPIPER,
SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER, a DOWITCHER that was most likely a Short-billed and 2
WILSON'S SNIPE. Terns seen were LEAST and ROYAL. All of the common swallow
species were seen except Bank including a single CLIFF SWALLOW. Warblers
included YELLOW, BLACK-THROATED BLUE, YELLOW-RUMPED, PINE, BLACKPOLL,
YELLOW-THROATED, NORTHERN PARULA, BLACK-AND-WHITE, AMERICAN REDSTART, COMMON
YELLOWTHROAT, NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH and YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT. A single
GRASSHOPPER SPARROW and several SAVANNAH SPARROWS were the only sparrows of the
day. A CATTLE EGRET was seen on the way home in a field on route 10 east of
Spring Grove. I attached a link to a couple of photos of the pelicans. Good
birding.
Adam D'Onofrio
Dinwiddie Co.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39668089@N05/7003979632/in/photostream/ ;
