A total of seven participants turned out for the Northern Virginia Bird Club
walk today at Dyke Marsh/Belle Haven in Fairfax County. Oddball bird of the
day was a leucostic Ruddy Duck -- almost all feathers white except for a ruddy
wash on its chest -- in a large raft of Ruddies just off the Belle Haven Picnic
Area. A Merlin put in a very brief appearance as it went speeding by. There
were still quite a few Great Egrets around notwithstanding that it is now
November. A large mixed flock of passerines, afforded very close views as they
were feeding on Bush Honeysuckle just past the dogleg of the Marsh Trail.
Different individual Cedar Waxwings in this aggregation had, variously, yellow,
orange, and reddish tail tips. I have read that some Waxwings can get reddish
or orange tail tips by eating certain types of berries when their tail feathers
are developing.
Bob Klarquist
Arlington, VA
clarquis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Location: Dyke Marsh
Observation date: 11/3/07
Notes: 7 participants -- Leader, R. Klarquist -- Cool, overcast, breezy.
Partial albino Ruddy Duck
Number of species: 45
Canada Goose 200
Mallard 220
Northern Shoveler 3
Lesser Scaup 2
Bufflehead 4
Ruddy Duck 300
Pied-billed Grebe 7
Double-crested Cormorant 13
Great Blue Heron 4
Great Egret 6
Bald Eagle 2
Red-shouldered Hawk 2
Merlin 1
American Coot 300
Laughing Gull 300
Ring-billed Gull 125
Herring Gull 4
Great Black-backed Gull 10
Forster's Tern 1
Mourning Dove 8
Belted Kingfisher 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 6
Downy Woodpecker 3
Northern Flicker 2
Blue Jay 12
American Crow 7
Fish Crow 15
Carolina Chickadee 4
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
Carolina Wren 10
American Robin 12
Gray Catbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 4
European Starling 50
Cedar Waxwing 30
Yellow-rumped Warbler 4
Song Sparrow 4
White-throated Sparrow 12
Dark-eyed Junco 2
Northern Cardinal 14
Red-winged Blackbird 35
Common Grackle 40
House Finch 5
American Goldfinch 25
House Sparrow -- 6
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)
Robert Klarquist
clarquis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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