I arrived at Staunton View about 7:45 this morning to cool temps, brisk
winds, and bright sunny skies. The water level was down considerably from
last weekend exposing much more mud. After a quick scan, I found a adult
Black-bellied Plover still in breeding plumage. After studying it for
several minutes, I began to scan again when I spotted a very unexpected
WHIMBREL. The bird was foraging along the muddy shoreline, straight across
from my viewing location in perfect light. Knowing that Adam D'Onofrio and
Tina Trice would be arriving soon, I followed the bird up the shoreline for
a couple hundred yards where it frighteningly took flight. I was able to
hear the distinctive flight call and follow the bird across a channel where
it circled briefly and sat back down on a large muddy point. Whew. After
about 20 minutes that felt like an hour, Adam and Tina arrived to confirm my
id and take some pictures.
After we finally tired of the Whimbrel (which took a while) we began to look
for other birds, and were not disappointed. 7 White Ibis, 2 Snowy Egrets, 1
American Golden Plover and 1 Western Sandpiper were all good to see.
Adam and Tina stayed on after I left, and called to report that they added a
White-rumped Sandpiper to my list below. Hopefully some of Adam's pictures
turned out good enough to post.
Paul Glass
South Boston, VA
Location: Staunton View Public Use Area
Observation date: 9/4/10
Number of species: 34
Canada Goose 15
Wood Duck 8
Wild Turkey 6
Double-crested Cormorant 2
Great Blue Heron 8
Great Egret 30
Snowy Egret 2
Little Blue Heron 3
White Ibis 7
Black Vulture 1
Turkey Vulture 2
Osprey 2
Bald Eagle 3
Red-shouldered Hawk 2
Black-bellied Plover 1
American Golden-Plover 1
Semipalmated Plover 10
Killdeer 10
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 12
Whimbrel 1
Semipalmated Sandpiper 10
Western Sandpiper 1
Least Sandpiper 1
Pectoral Sandpiper 6
Short-billed Dowitcher 2
Chimney Swift 2
American Crow 100
Fish Crow 10
Barn Swallow 2
Carolina Wren 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 3
Pine Warbler 1
American Goldfinch 1
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)
