Dear VA-Birders
On Saturday Nov 10, several members of the Northern Virginia Teen Bird Club
went to the sand quarry ponds along route 3 in King George Co. Highlights were
a fly-over Red Crossbill (a lifer for most in the group), a canvasback
(f.o.s.), a tundra swan which has been hanging out here all summer and fall, 3
handsome hooded merganser males (f.o.s.), a superb look at a hunting harrier, 2
snow geese (f.o.s.), lots of bald eagles, ring-necked ducks, ruddy ducks, and
gadwalls; and some american wigeons and buffleheads. Many thanks to Jacob
Barkett for keeping the lists and posting them into ebird. We also had pipits,
horned larks, and fly-over purple finch and pine siskin.
Today, Nov 11, I spent the day in Caroline, King William and King and Queen
counties finding 73 species. Here are the highlights.
1. At Riverwood, my property near Beulahville along the upper Mattaponi, there
were 41 Rusty blackbirds who kept themselves separated from the swarms of
grackles (over 1700). At first I thought there were only 9 birds, but when a
Sharp-shinned Hawk flew in, they all flew up into the treetops allowing for a
more complete count. I also had 19 hermit thrushes here and two new fly-over
"yard birds": Pine Siskin and American Pipit.Two of the 11 Winter Wrens here
burst briefly into exuberant song on this gorgeous day.
2. Pipits were quite common today. I found 194, with 130 of those in 3 fields
along Frog Hollow Rd in Caroline Co
3. I carefully scanned the farm fields hoping for a Lapwing (several have
turned up North of us) but could not find any among the 178 killdeer.
4. The sunset-tinged-sky above the Pocket (Pamunkey River at Pamunkey Indian
Reservation) was chock-full of Canada Geese, Pintails(1150), Green-winged Teal
(350), Shoveler (32), and hundreds of mallards/blacks as they settled into the
Pocket for the night.
5. Five Great Egrets roosted on-top of a duck blind in The Pocket at dusk.
6. 775 Ring-necked Ducks were mostly in several Gravel/Kitty-litter mine ponds.
7. My first King and Queen Red-breasted Nuthatch was in Walkerton.
The Walkerton CBC ( mostly in King William/King and Queen) is on Dec 30.
Please let me know if you would like to help.
All the best
Fred
Beulahville, King William Co
Frederick D. Atwood fredatwood@xxxxxxxxx
Flint Hill School, 10409 Academic Dr, Oakton, VA 22124
703-242-1675
http://www.agpix.com/fredatwood
http://www.flinthill.org
http://tea.armadaproject.org/tea_atwoodfrontpage.html
