All,
A White-eyed Vireo was singing half-heartedly in our yard this afternoon.
We are at the junction of the Nansemond River and the James, forming part of
the southwest boundary of Hampton Roads.
My previous nearby winter record of W-e Vireo was ~5 miles west of our home, in
early January, some few years ago, on a farm along Chuckatuck Creek.
A day in the wintertime on Washington Ditch in the Dismal Swamp will yield 2 to
3 W-e Vireos, once you learn the few patches along that Ditch near Lake
Drummond where they over-winter.
David Matson
Suffolk and Onancock
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 19, 2015, at 5:24 PM, Robert Ake <rake@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Today was another beautiful day in the Great Dismal Swamp. Tracy Tate
joined me this morning for our walk along the north section of Jericho Ditch.
We started at 7:30am with the temperature at 39F and essentially no wind.
We had great listening conditions. We took our time and patiently checked out
everything we saw or heard. The final total of 37 species is reasonable for
this time of year, but nothing rare was encountered. Of note was our only
warbler was a single Myrtle Warbler, but then the swamp is not one of their
strongholds. Catbirds, both kinglets, Winter Wrens, and Hermit Thrushes were
vocal although none were singing. Woodpeckers were a little more reserved
than last week with no Hairy Woodpecker recorded. As a side note the
immature Herring Gull seen as a flyover was my first for the swamp.
The next walk will have to be late next week which is outside the longest
range weather forecast. But Railroad Ditch is the next hike up and if the
weather looks not-so-good we can do it from our cars. Anyone who wishes to
join me can meet me at the refuge headquarters parking lot on Desert Road at
7:30am, Thursday, January 29. If the weather is good, we will walk about 3
miles and return to our cars for a ride to the lake before leaving the
refuge. No reservation is necessary; just show up. Hope to see you then.
The complete list of birds is given below.
Dismal Swamp NWR Jericho Ditch, Suffolk, US-VA
Jan 19, 2015 7:20 AM - 10:41 AM
Protocol: Traveling
5.0 mile(s)
Comments: Submitted from BirdLog NA for Android v1.9.6
37 species
Canada Goose 3
Wood Duck 2
Turkey Vulture 8
Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 2
Ring-billed Gull 3
Herring Gull 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 7
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 4
Downy Woodpecker 6
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 3
Pileated Woodpecker 5
Blue Jay 4
American Crow 6
Carolina Chickadee 4
Tufted Titmouse 1
Winter Wren 6
Carolina Wren 12
Golden-crowned Kinglet 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 6
Hermit Thrush 4
American Robin 6
Gray Catbird 8
Brown Thrasher 1
European Starling 5
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 1
Eastern Towhee 2
Field Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 5
Swamp Sparrow 3
White-throated Sparrow 30
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) 2
Northern Cardinal 4
Red-winged Blackbird 3
Common Grackle 10
American Goldfinch 4
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