VA Birders,
I birded Mason Neck State Park and NWR today from 8:30 until 1:30 and managed
to find 6 year birds: Common Merganser (finally caught up with them!), Winter
Wren, Brown Thrasher, Brown Creeper (have spent hours looking for one this year
-- anyone else find them to be scarce this year?), Lesser Yellowlegs and
Wilson's Snipe. The Thrasher was seen from the observation blind on the Bayside
Trail, and the Lesser Yellowlegs were in a mixed flock of 16 birds (mostly
Greaters) from The Great Marsh Trail. I also had 4 Greater Yellowlegs (calling)
from the Woodmarsh Trail along with one Snipe. Other interesting birds at Mason
Neck were: 26 Tundra Swans, over 50 Black Ducks, Greater and Lesser Scaup,
Green-winged Teal, Bufflehead, Hooded Mergs, Ruddy Ducks, 2 Canvasbacks, YB
Sapsucker, GC Kinglets, and 4 Hermit Thrushes.
Late morning at Huntley yesterday was fairly quiet but yielded my FOS Tree
Swallow with at least 9 birds cruising over the main pond. Other highlights
included: nice views of Pintail, Shovelers, Wigeon, Gadwall, GW Teal, and Great
Egret.
Will McPhail
Burke, VA
