Great day birding the Upper Northern Neck from
King George ponds to Washington's Birthplace and
Leedstown in Westmoreland County.
While driving back towards route 3 from
Washington's Birthplace at about 11:15 AM my
attention was caught by a large sparrow with
tail-corner spots which flew up from the road
side into a row of cedars. I slammed on the
brakes, parked on the roadside and walked back to
investigate. After a few minutes a
first-winter-plumage lark sparrow perched on the
telephone wire and then flitted to the roadside
where it hopped around for a wonderful 5-10
minutes. It took off whenever a car drove by but
soon reappeared. This is about 2000 feet from
the entrance to the park, in the first weedy
field beyond a field full of sweet gum saplings
that is shortly beyond the last house on the left
(#993). It was using the fields on both sides of
the road. This bird had some rust in its crown-
stripes but not on its dingy-brown, but
typically-patterned, face. The black malars and
chest spot were very evident.
Other highlights were a merlin chasing a flock of
150 redwinged blackbirds at Mothershead
(Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife
Refuge) in Leedstown, a covey of 15 Bob-white
flying into Mothershead from the neighbor's
property, a Peregrine flying slowly over King
George ponds, ducks starting to arrive at King
George ponds, Sora's calling at dusk in
Leedstown, and quite a few warblers in
Westmoreland County, though no where near the
numbers that Kurt saw further upriver in Prince
William Co. As Kurt also reported there were
tons of catbirds and yellowthroats today. The
Leedstown fields that held lots of shorebirds
last year had only a few killdeer on previous
trips this fall, but this week there were lots of
killder and nothing rare. Also interesting at
GWB was a flock of titmice and chickadees
screaming at a black rat snake coiled up in the
crown of a cherry tree which still had a few ripe
cherries in it.
Here is the list:
KG = ponds along route 3 in King George County
GWB = George Washington's Birthplace
M = Mothershead RRVNWR
L = roads and private locations in Leedstown
1 Pied-billed Grebe (KG)
23 Double-crested Cormorant: 2 in KG, 21 at GWB
23 Great Blue Heron 9 at Kg, 14 at GWB
2 Great Egret KG and GWB
40 Black Vulture seen over Essex County
30 Turkey Vulture along the roads
260 Canada Geese 170 KG, 50 GWB, 40 other
130 Mallard KG
4 Black Duck KG
9 American Wigeon KG (5 male, 4 female)
Gadwall 1 female at KG
12 Green-winged Teal L
25 Ring-necked Duck KG 18 female, 7 male
20 Wood Duck 6 GWB, 14 L
6 Mute Swan GWB 1 pair, 1 pair with 2 young
1 Osprey KG
13 Bald Eagle 8 adult, 5 immature
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk L
2 Red-shouldered Hawk L
3 Red-tailed Hawk L
3 Kestrel L
1 Merlin M
1 Peregrine KG
3 Wild Turkey 1 GWB, 2 L
15 Northern Bobwhite 1 covey L and M
5 Sora L (Drake's Marsh)
151 Killdeer (136 L, 1 M, 14 KG)
10 Pectoral Sandpiper (9 KG, 1 L)
6 Herring Gull KG and GWB
45 Laughing Gull KG, GWB, L
25 Ring-billed Gull KG, GWB, L
3 Forster's Tern 1 KG, 2 L
35 Rock Pigeon KG
35 Mourning Dove
3 Yellow-billed Cuckoo GWB 2, and L 1
1 Great-Horned Owl hooting at dusk L
1 Barred Owl L
21 Chimney Swift in 1 flock at dusk L and M,
don't know where the roost is (maybe in the
Mothershead chimney?)
1 Belted Kingfisher GWB
18 Red-bellied Woodpecker 10 GWB, 1 M, 7 L
1 DOwny WOodpecker GWB
1 Hairy Woodpecker L
3 FLicker 1 GWB, 2 L
2 Pileated L
5 E. Wood-Pewee GWB 2, L 2, M 1
3 E. Phoebe L 1, M 2
Empidonax sp 1 L
3 White eyed Vireo GWB, L, M
1 Red-eyed Vireo GWB
25 Blue Jay
131 American crow
4 Fish crow 2 GWB, 2 L
~75 Horned Lark L
~300 Tree Swallow KG
26 Carolina Chickadee GWB 8, M 4, L 14
30 Tufted Titmouse GWB 14, M 4, L 12
Winter Wren GWB 1 (first of season here?)
House Wren L
27 Carolina Wren GWB 11, M 4, L 12
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet L (1st of season here?)
2 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher GWB
2 Wood Thrush L
18 Eastern Bluebird 4 KG, 8 GWB, 2 M, 4 L
40 Gray Catbird GWB 1, M 4, L 33, other 2
14 Northern Mockingbird GWB 3, M 2, L 4, other 5
4 Brown Thrasher GWB 1, M 1, L 2
2 Cedar Waxwing GWB
125 Starling KG
1 Blue-winged Warbler M
9 Northern Parula GWB 3, M 2, L 4
6 Magnolia L 4, M 2
3 Black-throated Green GWB 1, M 1, L 1
31 Pine GWB 17, M 4, L 10
1 Prairie M
6 Palm 2 GWB, 4 L in farm fields mostly
2 Bay-breasted 1 M, 1 L
6 Blackpoll 3 GWb, 1 M, 2 L
6 Black-and-White 1 GWB, 2 M, 3 L
11 Am. Redstart 2 GWB, 3 M, 6 L
3 Ovenbird L
66 Common Yellowthroat 4 GWB, 5 M, 47 L, 10 other
2 Summer Tanager GWB
12 Chipping Sparrow GWB
1 Lark Sparrow near GWB
1 Grasshopper Sparrow KG
1 Song Sparrow
~ 50 Cardinal
12 Blue Grosbeak
55 Indigo Bunting 4 KG, 15 GWB, 14 M, 17 L, 5
other
350 Red-winged Blackbird
1 Eastern Meadowlark
150 Common Grackle
1 Orchard Oriole GWB
1 Baltimore Oriole GWB
4 House Finch GWB
~ 45 Goldfinch
45 House Sparrow KG 10, L 35
All the best
fred
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
You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
