Hi VA-Birders,
Starting at 7:45 AM today, we spent the morning exploring several roads in the
Guinea/Maryus area of Gloucster County and tallied 69 species. (see roads/route
numbers below with list of species tallied). Most side roads lead to the water,
so we had a nice mix of land birds and shorebirds. A big surprise was the
number of Willets (at least 17, probably many more), seen along the shoreline
or in flight on almost every road we covered.
We had 8 species of warbler, including great looks at Yellow-breasted Chat,
Yellow Warbler and Prairie Warbler - beautiful in the bright sunlight we had
all morning. Never thought I'd say Chats were "common" but turns out this area
provides an ideal habitat - we had 8 for the day in different spots and 4 were
perched in the open. We had 5 Blackpolls so they're still around for now.
Also abundant were Seaside Sparrows, Ospreys and Eastern Kingbirds. Another
highlight was hearing a Northern Bobwhite call just before we stopped for the
day.
GREAT Birding!
Meredith and Lee Bell
Hayes, VA (Gloucester County)
Location: Maryus-Guinea Loop
Observation date: 5/23/10
Notes: We covered several roads in the Maryus loop, starting on Guinea Road
which become Kings Creek Rd (Rt 653), then Mill Pt. Road (Rt 716), Rowes Pt. Rd
(Rt 652), all the way to the end of Kings Creek Road (Rt 653), Browns Bay Rd
(Rt 651), Belvin Farm Rd (Rt 650) and Maryus Rd (Rt 649) back to Guinea Rd.
Number of species: 69
Canada Goose 8
Mallard 3
Northern Bobwhite 1
Double-crested Cormorant 3
Great Blue Heron 2
Great Egret 7
Snowy Egret 2
Green Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 8
Osprey 24
Bald Eagle 1
Clapper Rail 5
Semipalmated Plover 1
Killdeer 1
Willet 17
Lesser Yellowlegs 1
Semipalmated Sandpiper 6
Laughing Gull 8
Herring Gull 3
Mourning Dove 10
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 5
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 3
Pileated Woodpecker 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1
Great Crested Flycatcher 7
Eastern Kingbird 13
White-eyed Vireo 1
Blue Jay 2
American Crow 12
Fish Crow 3
Purple Martin 2
Tree Swallow 3
Barn Swallow 20
Carolina Chickadee 9
Tufted Titmouse 2
Brown-headed Nuthatch 6
Carolina Wren 14
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 4
Eastern Bluebird 8
American Robin 19
Gray Catbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 10
Brown Thrasher 4
European Starling 18
Northern Parula 1
Yellow Warbler 2
Pine Warbler 5
Prairie Warbler 4
Blackpoll Warbler 5
Ovenbird 1
Common Yellowthroat 8
Yellow-breasted Chat 8
Eastern Towhee 6
Chipping Sparrow 7
Field Sparrow 2
Seaside Sparrow 12
Song Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 19
Indigo Bunting 9
Red-winged Blackbird 23
Eastern Meadowlark 2
Common Grackle 32
Boat-tailed Grackle 1
Brown-headed Cowbird 3
House Finch 8
American Goldfinch 6
House Sparrow 2
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)
