I was expecting to find an osprey at Occoquan this morning, and I was not
disappointed. One was flying around the nesting platform behind the pond next
to the parking lot. The impressive numbers of waterfowl in the river continue.
Flocks of scaup were just off Deephole Pt. Road along its entire length, from
the gazebo to the golf course, totaling several thousand. Off Deephole Pt
itself at least 20 greater scaup made up part of a much, much larger scaup
flock. Just beyond them were close to 100 red-breasted mergansers. Off the
gazebo a small group of red-heads were mixed in with the scaup. A flock of
canvasback was near the intersection with Charlie Rd. Other waterfowl species
noted were tundra swan, black duck, wood duck, gadwall, bufflehead, ring-necked
duck, common merganser, and hooded merganser. I saw 2 horned grebes and quite
a few pied-billed. As for passerines, a nice mixed flock contained both
kinglets and creeper, as well as the usual chickadees and titmice. A rusty
blackbird was singing at the marsh along wildlife drive. I also saw a savannah
sparrow along Charlie Rd. and several white-crowned sparrows at the pond next
to the parking lot.
Marc Ribaudo
Woodbridge
