All – Last week (Sun – Wed) my daughter, Lucy, and I headed to Chincoteague via
the Bay Bridge. We were looking for waterfowl and anything else that might
appear. As we approached Norfolk and were crossing one of the bridges on Sun,
there must have been 1000 Gannets flying and sitting on the water. On the Bay
Bridge, there were a few birds but it wasn’t spectacular. We found Gannets, a
few Long-tailed Ducks, Surf Scoters, Black Scoters, scaup (probably lesser), a
few Buffleheads, one Purple Sandpiper, 2 Ruddy Turnstones, and the mandatory
gulls. Also, there was a Red-necked Grebe (the first of many seen).
Next, we stopped at Kiptopeke. There were a few scaup in the distance along
the south beach, 2 Ruddy Ducks, a Red-throated Loon, a Common Loon, and perhaps
100 or more Horned Grebes between the fishing wharf and the ship-islands. I’ve
never seen so many HOGR in one place. Next we stopped at Willis Wharf and
found a Red-necked Grebe and a batch of Marbled Godwits sleeping on a small
sand bar.
On Chincoteague over the next few days we found a variety of birds. There were
about 500 Snow Geese on the beach, lots of Tundra Swans, Shovelers, Gadwalls,
Black Ducks, and Green-winged Teal. We found a few Pintails and Wigeons.
Along the beach we found Dunlin (several groups, probably 1000 total), Willets,
Marbled Godwits, 1 Forster’s Tern, 1 Laughing Gull, Great Black-backed Gulls, 1
Lesser Black-backed Gull, Herring and Ring-billed gulls, Sanderlings, and on
Wednesday morning a Merlin perched on a driftwood stump at the end of the
parking area. In-land, we found Fox Sparrows, Brown-headed Nuthatches, Brants,
Red-throated Loon, Red-throated Grebe (there were 3 at Memorial Park), 1 Harbor
Seal along the causeway, Oystercatchers, and in the parking lot of the Refuge
Inn a pair of Great Horned Owls calling Tuesday evening.
For the trip we had 96 species, which wasn’t too bad considering we didn’t
chase down many sparrows or other forest birds. I have up-loaded photos from
the trip to my Flickr site. The Merlin photos are very good, and I was able to
get some photos of the Lesser and Great Black-backed Gulls in the same frame so
you can compare the size difference.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/vmibiology/
Dick Rowe
VMI Bioloyg
