Occoquan Bay NWR was simply fantastic this morning between 7 and 10am. I
encountered swarms of birds almost everywhere on my walk. Palm warblers and
yellow-rumps were present in huge numbers. The highlight was a sedge wren
along the Bayview Road near the intersection with the wildlife drive. I was
able to pish the wren to within 10 feet. Of course I did not have my camera
with me. Another highlight was the many sparrows, including flocks of song,
swamp, white-throated, and savannah, plus chipping, white-crowned, Lincoln's,
field, and eastern towhee. A king rail was feeding just below the culvert
along the wildlife drive, oblivious to my presence. I watched it catch a fish,
flip it up on the bank, and swallow it down. It then started preening, again
out in the open within 15 feet (again, no camera). Other notables were 2
American pipits, rusty blackbird, brown creeper, golden-crowned kinglet, 30
pied-billed grebes in the river, and a lone osprey. Here is a list of what I
saw:
Pied-billed grebe 30
Canada Goose 60
Wood duck 14
Great Blue Heron 2
Osprey 1
Wild Turkey 1
King Rail 1
Killdeer 2
Ring-billed Gull 5
Laughing Gull 5
Rock Pigeon 12
Mourning Dove 10
Belted Kingfisher 2
Downy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 4
Pileated woodpecker 2
Eastern Phoebe 6
Blue Jay 15
American Crow 10
Fish Crow 8
Tree Swallow 6
Rough-winged swallow 6
American pipit 2
Carolina Chickadee 4
Tufted Titmouse 4
Brown creeper 1
Sedge wren 1
Carolina Wren 8
Golden-crowned Kinglet 4
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 6
Cedar waxwing 1
Eastern Bluebird 25
Northern Mockingbird 8
American robin 80
European Starling 50
Yellow-rumped Warbler 100+
Palm Warbler 75
Common Yellowthroat 9
Eastern Towhee 3
Chipping sparrow 3
Field sparrow 5
Savannah sparrow 30
Song Sparrow 12
Lincoln's sparrow 1
Swamp sparrow 20
White crowned sparrow 2
White-throated sparrow 20
Northern Cardinal 6
Blue Grosbeak 2
Indigo Bunting 10
Red-winged Blackbird 100
Rusty Blackbird 12
Common Grackle 5
House finch 25
American Goldfinch 15
55 species
Marc Ribaudo
Woodbridbge, VA
