Hi all:
I was able to spend the better part of a week exploring Chincoteague NWR.
Good diversity of sandpipers, with 22 species of sandpipers seen over the
week. It takes some work to find them. The wildlife loop and Swan's Cove
were not particularly productive. The best spots were the flats south of
the Parking Lot, the north end of the service road (the wash flats), the
wild beach way up north, fisherman's point at the south end of the island
-- and the flats behind the first set of dunes at the point, and along the
175 causeway.
Good numbers of some of the more unusual sandpipers -- including Pectorals,
Westerns, and Stilt Sandpipers. I didn't realize that I had a shot of a
Buff Breasted Sandpiper until I reviewed a video of some Pectorals when I
got home today. It was tucked in the tidal flats on the south end of the
island.
The Wild Beach had huge numbers of Lesser Black Backed gulls and
sanderlings. I spent a good amount of time studying plumages on the
sanderlings. Sanderlings are a good sandpiper to work with on plumage.
The juveniles are very crisp and beautiful right now. The adults are all
over the place -- in all forms of molt and some in basic plumage already.
It is fairly straightforward to distinguish the first-years from the
adults.
If you go to Chincoteague, long walks will pay off. You can bike up to
D-Dike on the service road. From there, it is a good (4 mile) walk to go
up to the service road to the Wash Flat Cross dike. From there you can
head back down the beach to cut across D-dike to get your bike. I took
that route and it took about 5 hours. Try to time your walk so you are
walking on the beach as the tide is going out. The other long walk is to
head south on the beach to the hook -- you can head back on the tom's cove
side. The birds on Tom's Cove are clustered and there will be long
stretches without much activity. However, there will be some surprises --
piping plovers and least turns are scattered in this area.
I finally found a Yellow Crowned Night Heron in the marsh on south Main st.
in town! It took several tries to find one -- I was worried I would get
skunked this year.
Here is a link to my photos and videos:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/73831614@N00/albums/72157715854873888
Bill
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