The imm. female Ruby-throated Hummingbird (banded this morning by Mary
Gustafson & Bruce Peterjohn -- THANKS guys!) continues unflapped at the house
feeder
in Cape Charles. Other visitors since yesterday have included
Yellow-breasted Chat (yesterday all day til 2:00), Pine Siskins (3), Purple
Finches (7),
Dickcissel (daily until 9:00 or so, then again in the afternoon), and Baltimore
Orioles (6-7). Uncommon for the yard itself was a Brown Thrasher.
Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, and
Northern
Flicker put in brief appearances yesterday; the Orange-crowned Warbler has not
reappeared.
A Short-eared Owl has been hanging around the Eastern Shore of Virginia NWR
for the past three days, in the field just NORTH of Route 600 where it runs
east-west (just north of the Visitor Center). I saw the bird hunting in bright
sunlight yesterday at 3:40 p.m.; it caught an Eastern Mole, dispatched it, and
flew around proudly with it, landing next to the road (and my truck) to devour
it. I learned this morning that it had been seen two days earlier by banders
in the area.
The complicated new radar array (an enormous structure!) is up and running on
the grounds of the Nature Conservancy's Cobb Island Station. Today, Sid
Gauthreaux, Sarah Mabey, and others were fine-tuning its bird-detecting
capabilities: a small plane with two wildlife biologists flew around in a small
twin-engine plane, flushing up flocks of scoters and brant, which appeared on
the
radar screen. The two observers stationed in the Cape Charles Lighthouse were
also on the lookout for migrating seabirds, which would be within the sweep of
the radar as well. It will be fascinating to see whether this radar array will
be able to detect migrating seabirds in this area in coming years.
Ned Brinkley
Cape Charles, VA
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