Yesterday, Sept 14, Fenton Day and I birded several locations in King William
Co on the upper Middle Peninsula. We started at 8:30 at my property (Riverwood)
along the Mattaponi River near Beulahville (riverine floodplain forest, pine
forest, and oxbow pond), and the road that leads to it through a regrowing
clear-cut area. From there we went to the Turf Farm along Woodbury Rd near the
Walkerton Bridge, then to the Pocket (of the Pamunkey River in the Pamunkey
Indian reservation) and two private farms that border the Pocket, where the
mellow sunset was serene and relaxin,g as owls hollered, geese honked, soras
and wood ducks squealed, eagles twittered, and mallards and black ducks
quacked. It was a gorgeous day and great to be outside in it all day.
We hoped for lots of warblers and other passerine migrants, but while many of
you were seeing great diversity at Leesylvania and Riverbend, we saw very few
here in the upper Middle Peninsula.
Our warbler, vireo, thrush, flycatcher totals for the entire day were:
14 white-eyed vireo
3 yellow-throated vireo
4 red-eyed vireo
4 wood pewee
1 acadian flycatcher
3 empidonax sp
3 great crested flycatcher
7 phoebe
1 wood thrush
17 robin
12 bluebird
1 black-and-white
9 yellowthroat
1 hooded
1 northern waterthrush
2 redstart
3 parula
3 pine
1 blackpoll
3 yellow-throated warbler
1 yellow-breasted chat (rte 628, King and Queen County)
We also had bobolinks flying over at most locations totaling at least 14 birds,
and scattered bald eagles (12), tree swallows (50), barn swallows (7),
gnatcatchers (3), blue grosbeaks (3), indigo buntings (5), cedar waxwings (2),
scarlet tanagers (4) and summer tanagers (5).
At Woodbury Rd (stay on the paved road, do not enter the fields) we were happy
to find 5 American Golden Plovers and 4 Pectoral Sandpipers. We searched long
and hard scoping through the heat shimmer for buff-breasteds but could not find
any. There were also about 30 killdeer, no peeps, and no horned larks.
In various places around the Pocket, the best finds were at least 16 Soras
calling from all over the rice marshes in three locations, a marsh wren, 2
osprey, 1 forster's tern, 3 greater yellowlegs, 2 pied-billed grebes, 2
double-crested cormorants, 6 laughing gulls, 16 blue-winged teal, at least 25
wood ducks, 35 great egrets roosting at dusk on the big duck blind in the
middle of the Pocket, barred owls calling back and forth, a green heron calling
as it flew over in the dark, and numerous mallards, black ducks, and canada
geese flying around after sunset.
The most accessible spot to hear the soras is the rice marsh that is just
behind the railroad tracks at The Pocket where we heard at least 6. This is
also where the marsh wren was.
All the best
May you have a nice long look at a beautiful bird today!
Fred
Frederick D. Atwood fredatwood at yahoo dot com
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
