Yesterday I spent the day in King George (KG) and Westmoreland (W) Counties
birding the areas around Sealston and Dogue in KG and Leedstown in W. Most of
the areas visited were private properties.
Despite not finding any cormorants, accipiters, or terns, I managed to tally
101 species including some very nice surprises. The day started with mist
rising from the King George ponds and ended with a chorus of Soras whinnying
and squealing in Leedstown's Drake Marsh where 3 Sandhill Cranes also bugled as
they settled in for the night.
Here are some of the highlights in taxonomical order:
1. 11 species of waterfowl including 771 Canada Geese (All except 1 in KG), 6
Wood Ducks, 1 Black Duck, 37 Mallards, 10 blue-winged teal, 3 shoveler, 22
green-winged teal, 1 pintail (LaGrange La in KG), 7 ring-necked ducks, 2 ruddy
ducks, and 8 pied-billed grebes.
2. Nine turkeys in Leedstown
3. Five Great Egrets
4. 33 Bald Eagles, most of which were immatures.
5. A chorus of at least 15 Soras at dusk in Leedstown.
6. 3 Sandhill Cranes in the same private location as three weeks ago. They do
not stay at that site (no public access) and might possibly be seen from roads
or boats elsewhere in the Leedstown area, though I have heard of no other
reports in this underbirded area. They settled into Drake's Marsh at dusk.
7. 11 species of shorebirds in KG including 3 Stilt Sandpipers, 1 White-rumped,
2 Pectoral, 5 Snipe, 6 Least, 3 Semipalmated Sandpipers, 1 Spotted, both
yellowlegs, 3 Semipalmated Plovers, and dozens of Killdeer.
8. My first Buff-breasted Sandpiper in a few years was with 21 Killdeer in a
newly-plowed vegetable field along Layton Landing Rd in Leedstown
9. 2300 Tree Swallows in KG. I carefully scanned the birds close enough to ID
(about half), but no other species could be found.
10. A Marsh Wren in Leedstown, only my second in the county.
11. A Gnatcatcher in Dogue
12. Warblers. 13 species, the most common being yellowthroat (30) and Cape May
(16), and the most exciting being a Mourning and a stunning male Hooded. Others
were Pine (9), Magnolia (8), Parula (4), Yellow-rumped (3), Blackpoll (2),
Redstart (2), Western Palm (2), Yellow (1), and Black-and-White (1).
13. First of season sparrows for me included 1 Lincoln's, 2 Swamp, and 9
Savannah.
14. To finish off the list were 1 Scarlet Tanager, 8 Blue Grosbeaks, 30 Indigo
Buntings, and 5 Bobolinks.
All the best
Fred
Oakton and Leedstown VA
Frederick D. Atwood fredatwood at yahoo dot com
Flint Hill School, 10409 Academic Dr, Oakton, VA 22124
703-242-1675
http://www.agpix.com/fredatwood
http://www.flinthill.org
http://tea.armadaproject.org/tea_atwoodfrontpage.html
