Yesterday (Sat May 17) I spent most of the
morning at Westmoreland State Park and the
afternoon in Leedstown. The highlight at the
state park was a kentucky warbler singing at the
entrance to the Laurel Point trail where the
Mountain Laurels were spectacular (approaching
peak bloom). There were 11 species of warblers
here. I also shot a nice photo from my car window
of a male summer tanager on a Loblolly branch
here. In Leedstown, the highlight was an alder
flycatcher singing in the alders of my mucky pond
on Peedee Creek, my first ever there. I only
heard one of the dickcissels at the edge of a rye
field along Leedstown Rd (3 were singing there
last week). A local farmer says the rye won't be
harvested until July so it sounds like it might
be safe for the dickcissels to nest there. That
same field had about 40 female and 20 male
bobolinks feeding and flying up whenever the
harrier passed by. There were practically no
shorebirds this week (2 spotted and 1
solitary)though I was pleased to hear 7 or 8
different bobwhites in the Leedstown area, 6 or 7
in the vicinity of Mothershead and 2 neighboring
farms. Migrant warblers were not very plentiful,
except for blackpolls. The only other migrant
warblers were northern waterthrush and
black-throated blue warbler On the way home after
dark I did a nightjar survey between Port Royal
and King George but found no nightjars or owls,
though Cope's gray tree frogs were singing at
almost every stop. On the survey I also heard
cricket frogs, fowler's toads, and one small
group of chorus frogs (which seemed late to me).
All the best
Fred
Frederick D. Atwood fredatwood@xxxxxxxxx
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
