I was at Huntley Meadows most of the morning (got there at about 8:00
a.m.) on Sunday. Birding was generally quite slow but there were some
sightings of interest (some mine and some reported by others). Most
interesting is that there were evidently quite a few rails in the main
marsh, particularly in the cattail marsh in the boardwalk loop area. I
heard 2 King Rails in different parts of the cattails and Soras (at
least 3) were very noisy in them at times. A fellow I talked to got a
look at one of the Soras and told me that someone else had reported
seeing and photographing a Virginia Rail in the same area earlier. For
me, however, they remained just "voices in the cattails". The same
informant also later told me that there were quite a few Red-headed
Woodpeckers in the deadening in the first large beaver pond down
Barnyard Run but when I got there in the late morning I could find none.
Also in the late morning I encountered a fellow who was moving up and
down the main boardwalk south of the loop while carefully examining the
marsh to the west. He told me that he had just flushed a King Rail from
beside the boardwalk and was trying to refind it (I don't think he had
any luck). Of real interest to me, however, was that a Solitary
Sandpiper appeared along this the Barnyard Run pond while I was trying
to wait out the Red-headeds. It foraged there briefly before flying
off. I note from a couple of other va-bird posts that Solitary
Sandpipers were also seen in a couple of other northern Virginia locales
on Saturday, so we must have a a little push of them through the area
over the weekend. I also saw a Northern Rough-winged Swallow flying
over the Main Pond/main marsh area briefly. An Indigo Bunting sang
once, too, but I did not find the Neotropicals I had sort of expected to
be mixed in with the chickadees and titmice.
John Bazuin
