VA BIRDers,
Here is a summary of some local No. Virginia sightings for this past
weekend. Peter Ross, Jay Keller and I ventured out to Loudoun County
Saturday Jan 7. We started at Burke Lake, Fairfax Co and noted pretty much
what has been previously posted (although we were there early and the duck
numbers and diversity were a bit different from the other reports). We then
headed north and found 3 No. Harriers in the Lucketts area and many American
Kestrels plus 2 White-crowned Sparrows. We also found 5 Brown Creepers up a
forested road into the western ridge plus 2 E. Towhees. After lunch we
continued west and eventually found a large number of Canada Geese - about
1500 just south of Axline Rd along Picnic Woods Rd nr Lovettsville. Mixed
in were 2 Cackling Geese. On the way home we passed a large vulture roost
on Rt 9 - probably 70 or more, mostly Turkey Vultures.
This morning, Jan 8, I visited a few local haunts starting at the Mason Neck
peninsula in Fairfax Co. Only a thousand or so Lesser Scaup on Belmont Bay
and nearly that number in Ruddy Ducks - yet I could see a distant raft of
many thousands of duck south of Occoquan Bay NWR that were too far to
effectively scan (visitors to that refuge should be able to scope them
easily from the gazebo). There was also a group of 25 Tundra Swans that
flew past in formation, twice, which is really quite grand when they are up
close and personal. The Great Marsh held at least 12 Greater Yellowlegs and
perhaps 175 American Black Ducks plus Northern Pintail, Green-winged Teal,
and Hooded Mergansers. Both locations easily produced several Hermit
Thrushes. I then traveled to Pohick Park and viewed the bay there adding
Gadwall and Ring-necked Duck to the day's list. Notable landbird was a
Red-breasted Nuthatch near the entrance road.
I traveled to the new marina in Prince William County overlooking the mouth
of the Occoquan River - here 3 Common Goldeneye held court along with the
now usual Bufflehead, Lesser Scaup, Common Mergansers, etc. I had just
started visiting the Lorton, Fairfax County area when Rob Hilton called with
his great California Gull sighting at Hunting Creek. I quickly left and
arrived at the site about 30 minutes later. Rob said the bird flew from the
west side mudflats several minutes earlier since the tide was coming in. We
headed over to the Stone Bridge and I found the adult bird on my second pass
through the gulls floating on the river. Red/black gonys spot on light
yellow bill, dark gray mantle, streaked head, brown eye (distance was about
75 yds), slightly larger than Ring-billed Gulls which swam by intermittently
and had a more massive bill. The mantle was a shade or two lighter than a
nearby 2nd winter Lesser Black-backed Gull which I also found soon after.
This latter bird was slightly smaller than 2nd and 3rd winter Herring Gulls
that were in its area, it already had a pale yellow eye.
I visited the Jones Point area and found a Peregrine on one of the Wilson
Bridge cranes. Up river in Alexandria were 6 DC Cormorants. I headed to
the Eisenhower Rd area and at the little lake near the public park found a
male and female Common Goldeneye slowly swimming just a dozen yards away.
(Let me predict Cliff Otto's next picture!). Heading home, I stopped at
Huntley Meadows Park and 3 Northern Shoveler were swimming in the pool near
the observation tower. It's been a long while since I saw a fine assembly
of ducks at Huntley - in addition to the No. Shovelers there were 13 No.
Pintails, 2 Gadwall, 27 Green-winged Teal and about 8 Mallards; plus 50
Ring-billed Gulls, many Swamp and Song Sparrows and crows.
Kurt Gaskill
